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WHICH  IS  THE  TRUE  CHURCH? 


OR, 


&  jjtfo  3Plam  Reasons  for  Soming  tfje 
3£omatt  Catijolic  Communion* 


BY 


C.  F.  B.  A. 


St.  Augustine,  a.d.  400 :— "  Ye  (Donatists)  are  not  in  the  mountains  of  Sion, 
because  you  are  not  in  tlie  City  seated  on  a  hill,  which  has  this  sure  mark,  that  it 
cannot  be  hidden.  It  is,  therefore,  known  to  all  nations  :  now  the  party  of  Donatus 
is  unknown  to  many  nations  :  it  is  not,  therefore,  that  city." — L.  ii.,  cont.  Lit. 
Petilian. ,  n.  239  (al.  104). 

Origen,  a.d.  210: — "We  are  not  to  give  heed  to  those  who  say,  Behold,  here 
is  Christ,  but  show  Him  not  in  the  Church,  which  is  filled  with  brightness  from 
the  East  even  unto  the  West ;  which  is  filled  with  true  light,  is  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth,  in  which  as  a  whole  is  the  whole  advent  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
who  saith  to  all  men,  throughout  the  universe,  '  Behold,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days 
of  life,  even  ttnto  tlie  consummation  of  the  world.'"'' — Tom.  iii.,  Com.  in  Matt., 
Tract,  xxx.  n.  46. 


$efo  ^tuition, 

WITH  AN  ENLARGED  APPENDIX  AND  ADDITIONAL  NOTES. 


EDINBURGH: 
PRINTED    AT    THE    BALLANTYNE    PRESS. 


St.  Iren^eus,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  a.d.  178  : — "  In  the  Church  God  hath  placed 
Apostles,  Prophets,  Doctors,  and  every  other  work  of  the  Spirit,  of  which  all  they 
are  not  partakers  who  do  not  hasten  to  the  Church,  but  by  their  evil  sentiment 
and  most  flagrant  conduct,  defraud  themselves  of  life.  For  where  the  Church  is, 
there  is  the  Spirit  of  God ;  and  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  is  the  Church 
and  every  grace  :  but  the  Spirit  is  truth." — Adv.  Hcer.,  1.  iii.  c.  24,  n.  2. 

"  He  will  judge  all  those  who  cause  schisms ;  men  destitute  of  the  love  of 
God,  and  who  have  in  view  their  own  interest  and  not  the  oneness  of  the  Church ; 
and  who,  on  account  of  slight  and  exaggerated  causes,  rend  and  divide,  and  so  far 
as  in  them  lies,  destroy  the  great  and  glorious  Body  of  Christ ;  men  who  have 
peace  on  their  lips,  but  war  in  their  actions ;  who  truly  strain  at  a  gnat,  but 
swallow  a  camel.  But  no  reformation  can  be  effected  by  them  so  great  as  is  the 
perniciousness  of  schism." — lb.,  1.  iv.  c.  33,  n.  7. 


PREFACE. 


THE  question  which  forms  the  title  of  this  little  work  is  one 
that  must  admit  of  very  easy  solution,  seeing  that  the  object, 
for  which  our  Lord  established  His  Church  on  earth,  rendered 
it  necessary  that  the  MARKS — which  were  to  distinguish  her 
in  all  ages  as  the  Divinely  commissioned  Teacher  OF  THE 
NATIONS — should  be  plain  and  simple,  and  easily  recognis- 
able by  those  for  whom  His  Religion  itself  was  specially 
adapted  and  designed — the  poor  and  ignorant,  who  constitute 
the  great  bulk  of  mankind. 

Learned  research,  or  anxious  inquiry  regarding  the  doctrines 
taught  by  the  various  and  conflicting  Christian  communities; 
cannot  be  necessary  for  those  who  simply  want  to  discover 
that  Church  which  is  the  one  unerring  TEACHER  appointed  by 
God  ;  and  the  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  show,  in  as 
simple  and  brief  a  manner  as  possible,  that  the  principal  marks 
and  characteristics  of  this  Church,  as  plainly  laid  down  in  the 
Scriptures  received  by  Protestants  themselves,  are,  by  a  refer- 
ence to  notorious  and  acknowledged  facts,  and  by  the  testi- 
monies of  Protestant  or  other  hostile  historians,  whose  works 
are  accessible  to  all,  so  clearly  shown  to  be  recognisable  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  in  her  alone,  as  entirely  to 
preclude  the  necessity  for  entering  upon  any  of  those  irre- 
levant, tedious,  and  interminable  controversies  into  which 
Protestant  disputants  are  always  desirous  to  draw  off  the 
attention  of  their  readers. 

The  texts  of  Scripture  are  generally  quoted  from  the 
Authorised  Protestant  Version  ;  and  the  historians  (such  as 
Hallam,  Milman,  Froude,  Ranke,  Neander,  Guizot, 
Renan)  or  other  authors,  whose  works  have  been  freely  cited 
in  the  Notes  or  Appendix,  are  all  so  well  known  for  their  strong 
Protestant  or  anti- Catholic  sympathies,  that  whatever  testi- 
monies, at  all  favourable  to  the  Catholic  Church  or  religion  in 
the  past,  may  be  found  in  their  writings,  will  be  acknowledged 
by  all  impartial  persons  to  have  a  value,  weight,  and  import- 
ance peculiar  to  themselves,  and  such  as  the  statements  of  few 
other  authors  would  in  these  days  be  likely  to  possess. 

C.  F.  B.  A. 


WHICH  IS  THE  TRUE  CHURCH  ? 


I.  The  Object,  for  which  the  Redeemer  established  His 
Church  or  Kingdom  on  earth,  was  the  conversion  of  the 
world  to  Christianity,  the  preservation  and  propagation  of  His 
One  true  Faith  and  Religion,  Universally,  in  regard  to  Time 
and  Place: — 1 

"I,"  He  declared,  "am  rthe  Light  of  the  world.  .  .  .  For  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the 
Truth  "  (John  iii.  17,  viii.  12,  xviii.  yj.  Comp.  Luke  ii.  32  ;  Acts  ii.  47, 
xiii.  47,  xvii.  30  ;  1  Tim.  ii.  4). 

"  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world  :  NOW  SHALL  the  prince  of 
this  world  be  cast  out.2    And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 

1  The  truth  of  this  proposition  is  admitted  by  the  ablest  Protestant  writers, 
e.g.,  by  Bishop  Pearson,  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Apostles'  Creed,  Art.  ix.,  and 
by  Bishop  Butler,  in  his  celebrated  Analogy  of  Religion.  The  last-named  writer 
says  : — "  In  order  to  continue  it  (Christianity),  and  carry  it  on  successively  through- 
out all  ages,  a  Visible  Church  was  established.  Had  Christ  and  His  Apostles 
only  taught,  and  by  miracles  proved,  religion  to  their  contemporaries,  the  benefits 
of  their  instructions  would  have  reached  but  to  a  small  part  of  mankind.  Chris- 
tianity must  have  been  in  a  great  degree  sunken  and  forgotten  in  a  very  few  ages. 
To  prevent  this,  appears  to  have  been  one  reason  why  a  Visible  Church  was  insti- 
tuted ;  to  be,  like  a  city  upon  a  hill,  a  standing  memorial  to  the  world  of  the  duty 
which  we  owe  our  Maker ;  to  call  men  continually,  both  by  example  and  instruction, 
to  attend  to  it,  and,  by  the  form  of  religion  ever  before  their  eyes,  remind  them  of 
the  reality  ;  to  be  the  repository  of  the  oracles  of  God  ;  to  hold  up  the  light  of 
revelation  in  aid  to  that  of  nature,  and  propagate  it  throughout  all  generations  to 
the  end  of  the  world  "  {Analogy,  Part  ii.  chap.  i.  sect.  7).  And  again  : — "He 
founded  a  Church,  to  be  to  mankind  a  standing  memorial  of  religion  and  invita- 
tion to  it ;  which  He  promised  to  be  with  always,  even  to  the  end  "  {lb.  chap.  v. 
sect.  6). 

2  "  Meaning,"  says  the  Anglican  commentator  Bloomfield,  "that  now  is  the 
Prince  of  this  world  .  .  .  about  to  be  deposed  from  his  rule,  by  the  abolition  of 
idolatry  and  superstition,  and  the  introduction  of  true  religion"  (Note  in  loc.). 
"After  the  death  of  Christ  the  casting  out  began,  and  its  first-fruits  were  the 
coming  in  of  the  Gentiles  into  the  Church." — Alford  {in  loc.).  Comp. 
Rev.  xiv.  6-S. 


(    6    ) 

draw  ALL  MEN  UNTO  Myself  "  (J  olm  xii.  31,32.  Comp.  Rom.  xvi.  20  ; 
Rev.  xiv.  6-8). 

"  Many  shall  come,  from  the  East  and  West,  and  from  the  North  and 
South,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob  IN  THE 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.1  But  the  children  of  the  Kingdom  [the  uncon- 
verted Jews]  shall  be  cast  out  into  outer  darkness"  {Matt.  viii.  If,  12  ; 
Luke  xiii.  29.     Comp.  Rom.  ix.  6-8,  24,  x.  20,  21,  xi.  12,  15,  25). 

"  The  Kingdom  of  God  IS  come  unto  YOU  [Jews].  .  .  .  The  Kingdom 
of  God  IS  [already]  among  YOU :  .  .  .  The  Kingdom  of  God  shall 
be  taken  from  you,  and  given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the 
FRUITS  THEREOF"  (Matt.  xii.  28;  Luke  xvii.  21;  Matt.  xxi.  43. 
Comp.  Acts  xiii.  46,  47,  xxviii.  28;  Rom.  x.  and  xi. ;  Coloss.  i.  6,  13; 
Rom.  iv.  13,  16). 

"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  Law  or  the  Prophets  :  I  am 
not  come  to  destroy,  but  TO  FULFIL.  The  Law  and  the  Prophets  were 
until  John :  since  that  time  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  preached, 

AND  EVERY  MAN  PRESSETH  INTO  IT"  (Matt.  V.  1 7  J  Luke  XVI.  1 6.  Comp. 
Matt.  xi.  11,  12). 

"  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  to  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,2 
which  a  man  took  and  sowed  in  his  field  :  which  indeed  is  the  least  of 
all  seeds  ;  but  when  it  is  grown,  it  is  the  greatest  among  herbs,   and 

BECOMETH  A  TREE,  AND  SHOOTETH  OUT  GREAT  BRANCHES  ;  SO  THAT 
THE    BIRDS    OF    THE    AIR    COME    AND     LODGE     UNDER    THE    SHADOW 

thereof.  .  .  .  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a 

1  Throughout  the  Gospels,  the  most  common  title  given  to  the  Visible  Church 
of  Christ  is  that  of  "  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  "  or  "  of  God  ; " — a  Kingdom, 
that  is  to  say,  "not  of  this  world"  (John  xviii.  36),  in  its  Origin  and  Object,  but 
heavenly  and  divine.  Besides  the  texts  above  quoted,  see  Matt.  iii.  2  ;  Mark  i.  14  ; 
Matt.  iv.  17,  23;  Luke  viii.  I;  Matt.  x.  7;  Luke  ix.  2,  IX,  27,  x.  9,  xi.  20, 
xvii.  21 ;  Matt.  xxii.  2,  xxv.  I,  xiii.  11,  24,  41  ;  John  iii.  3,  5,  &c. 

2  Dr.  Trench,  Protestant  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  says  : — "  His  comparison  of 
the  growth  of  His  Kingdom  to  that  of  a  tree,  must  have  been  one  with  which 
many  of  His  hearers  were  already  familiar  from  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. The  growth  of  a  worldly  kingdom  had  been  set  forth  under  this 
image  (Dan.  iv.  10-12 ;  Ezech.  xxxi.  3-9),  that  also  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
(Ezech.  xvii.  22-24 »  -Ps.  lxxx.  8).  A  mustard-seed  is  here  chosen,  .  .  .  not  with 
reference  to  its  ultimate  greatness,  but  to  the  proportion  between  the  smallness 
of  the  seed  and  the  greatness  of  the  plant  which  unfolds  itself  therefrom.  .  .  . 
What  He  desired  to  set  before  His  disciples,  was  not  merely  that  His  Kingdom 
should  be  glorious,  but  that  it  should  be  glorious  despite  its  weak,  and  slight,  and 
despised  beginnings.  ...  In  the  birds  flocking  to  the  boughs  of  the  mustard-tree 
when  it  had  grown  great,  and  there  finding  shelter  and  food,  we  are  to  recognise 
a  prophecy  of  the  refuge  and  defence  that  should  be  for  all  men  in  the  Church  : 
how  that  multitudes  should  hither  resort,  finding  there  protection  from  worldly 
oppression,  as  well  as  satisfaction  for  all  the  needs  and  wants  of  their  souls"  (On 
the  Parables,  pp.  105,  109,  6th  edit.). 

On  the  Parables  of  the  Leaven  and  the  Net,  Dr.  Trench  says:— "The 
Parable  of  the  Leaven  is  concerning  thej  Kingdom  of  God,  which  *  cometh  not 


(    7    ) 

woman  took,  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal,  UNTIL  THE  WHOLE  WAS 
LEAVENED.  .  .  .  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  a  NET,  that  was 
cast  into  the  sea,  and  gathered  of  every  kind  "  {Matt.  xiii.  31-33, 47  ; 
Mark  iv.  31,  32  ;  Luke  xiii.  19,  21). 

"This  gospel  of  the  Kingdom  SHALL  BE  PREACHED  IN  ALL  THE 
WORLD,  FOR  A  WITNESS  UNTO  ALL  NATIONS  [  "  FOR  OBEDIENCE  UNTO 

the  faith  IN  all  nations,"  Rom.  i.  5],  and  then  shall  the  end  come" 
{Matt.  xxiv.  14.     Comp.  Rom.  xvi.  26 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  24,  25). 

"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world  :  a  city  that  is  set  on  a 
hill  cannot  be  hid"   {Matt.  v.  14.      Comp.  Heb.  xii.  22;   Isau  lx. 

h  3,  14). 

"  I  have  ordained  you  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit,  and 
THAT  YOUR  FRUIT  SHOULD  REMAIN  "  {John  xv.  1 6.  Comp.  Acts  xiii. 
47,  xxviii.  28  ;  Rom.  i.  13,  xv.  9-19  ;  Coloss.  i.  6). 

"The  Spirit  of  Truth  shall  abide  with  you  for  ever:  He 

SHALL  GUIDE  YOU  INTO  ALL  TRUTH"   {John  xiv.  17,  xvi.  1 3). 

"As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you.1  .  .  .  All 
power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth  :  go  ye,  there- 
fore, and  teach  (make  disciples  of)  all  nations  ;  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  father,  and  of  the  son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  :  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  what- 
soever I  HAVE  COMMANDED  YOU  :  AND  LO  !  I  AM  WITH  YOU  ALWAYS, 
even  UNTO  the  end  OF  the  world  "  {John  XX.  21  ;  Matt,  xxviii. 
18-20). 

"  Go  ye  into  the  whole  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel2  to 

with  observation  ; '  this  [of  the  mustard-seed]  is  concerning  that  same  Kingdom, 
as  it  displays  itself  openly,  and  cannot  be  hid ;  that  declares  the  intensive,  this 
the  extensive  development  of  the  gospel.  .  .  .  They  have,  indeed,  this  in 
common,  that  they  describe  the  small  and  slight  beginnings,  the  gradual  progress, 
and  the  final  marvellous  increase  of  the  Church — or  how,  to  use  another  image, 
the  stone  cut  out  without  hands  should  become  a  great  mountain,  and  fill  the 
whole  earth  {Dan.  ii.  34,  35).  .  .  .  This  parable  [of  the  Net]  contains  a  pro- 
phecy of  the  wide  reach  and  potent  operation  of  the  gospel.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  should  henceforth  be  a  net  cast  into  the  broad  stream  of  the  whole  world, 
and  gathering  or  drawing  together  some  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and 
people,  and  nation  "  {On  the  Parables,  pp.  104,  135). 

1  None  have  a  right  to  preach  without  a  lawful  mission.  "How,"  says 
St.  Paul,  "shall  they  preach,  except  they  be  sentV  {Rom.  x.  15).  Those  who 
"assume  this  honour  unto  themselves"  {Heb.  v.  4)  are  guilty  of  the  sin  of  Korah 
(see  Nu?nb.  xvi.  3  sea. ;  Jude  II.  Comp.  Jerem.  xxiii.  21).  Our  Lord  Himself 
constantly  appealed  to  His  own  Divine  Mission  {John  vii.  16,  28,  29,  xii.  44, 
49,  xvii.  3,  &c),  which  Mission  He  imparted  to  the  Apostles  {Luke  x.  16; 
John  xvii.  18,  xx.  21),  and  the  Apostles  transmitted  to  their  Successors  —  the 
whole  Body  of  legitimate  Pastors  of  the  One  true  Church  throughout  all  ages. 
(See  Acts  xiii.  2-4,  xx.  28;    2   Tim.  i.  6,  II,  ii.  2;    Titus  i.  5;    Ephes.  iv. 

n-13.) 

2  Thus  was  "  the  Prince  of  this  world  "  to  be  deposed  from  his  rule.  He  had 
"  seduced  the  whole  world"  into  idolatry  {Rev.  xii.  9  ) ;  and  therefore  it  was  "into 


(     3     ) 

EVERY  CREATURE.  He  that  believeth,  and  is  baptized,  shall  be  saved  ; 
but  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be  condemned"  {Mark  xvi.  15,  16. 
Comp.  Rom.  x.  14-18). 

"  I  will  give  UNTO  THEE  (Peter)  the  Keys  "  [the  symbol  of  Supreme 
Government.  Comp.  Isai.  xxii.  22,  ix.  6  ;  Rev.  iii.  7]  "  OF  THE 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on 
earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt 

LOOSE  ON  EARTH,  IT  SHALL  BE  LOOSED  ALSO  IN  HEAVEN  "  {Matt. 
xvi.  19). 

"  I  appoint  unto  YOU  [My  Apostles]  a  Kingdom,  as  My  Father  also 
hath  appointed  unto  Me  ;  that  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  My  table  in  My 
Kingdom,   and   SIT   ON    THRONES,  JUDGING    THE    TWELVE   TRIBES   OF 

Israel  " x  {Luke  xxii.  29,  30). 

u  Whatsoever  YE  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  and 
whatsoever  YE  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  "  {Matt. 
xviii.  1 8). 

the  whole  world"  that  the  Church  of  Christ  was  commanded  to  "go  ;  "  because 
it  was  through  the  instrumentality  of  that  preaching,  "  by  which  faith  cometh  " 
{Rom.  x.  14-17)  that  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  " turned from  darkness  unto  light, 
from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God,"  and  to  be  "translated  into  the  Kingdom  of 
His  dear  Son  "  {Acts  xxvi.  18 ;  Coloss.  i.  13). 

By  "the  world,"  the  Empire  of  Heathen  Rome  (referred  to  by  St.  Luke  as 
co-extensive  with  "the  whole  world,"  Luke  ii.  1)  was  specially  signified.  In  Rev, 
xiii.  7,  this  Empire  is  spoken  of  as  extending  over  "all  kindreds,  and  tongues, 
and  nations"  {"peoples,  and  multitudes,  and  nations,  and  tongues"  Rev.  xvii. 
15);  and  upon  its  overthrow,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
its  place,  the  Saints  and  Angels  rejoice  that  "the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
become  the  Kingdom  of  the  Lord  and  of  His  Christ"  {Rev.  xi.  15).  After  this, 
Satan  is  said  to  be  bound  for  a  thousand  years  ;  i.e.,  his  power  as  "  Prince  of  this 
world  "  has  been  broken  by  the  fall  of  Paganism  in  the  Roman  Empire.  He  can 
no  longer  seduce  the  nations  by  making  them  worship  idols. 

With  the  words,  "Now  shall  the  Prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out"  {John  xii. 
31),  may  be  compared  St.  Paul's  declaration  to  the  Roman  Church  : — "  The  God 
of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet  shortly  "  {Rom.  xvi.  20).  Both  pro- 
mises evidently  referred  to  the  overthrow  of  Paganism,  and  the  near-at-hand 
conversion  to  Christianity  of  the  great  Heathen  Empire  of  Rome  (comp.  Rev. 
xiv.  6-8). 

The  Protestant  reader  may  refer  to  Paley's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  part  ii. 
ch.  ix.  sect.  1,  for  a  short  account  of  the  rapid  propagation  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  the  conversion  of  the  Empire  under  Constantine  in  the  fourth 
century. 

1  "  The  twelve  tribes  of  Israel" — i.e.,  the  spiritual  Israel,  the  whole  Church, — 
converted  Gentiles  as  well  as  converted  Jews  ;  the  former  being  "grafted  in 
among"  the  latter,  and  "all  baptized  into  one  Body"  {Rom.  xi.  17  ;  I  Cor.  xii. 
13  ;  Galat.  iii.  27-29  ;  Ephes.  iii.  6).  Hence  St.  Paul  calls  the  whole  Christian 
Church  "  the  Israel  of  God"  (Galat.  vi.  16),  "the  commonwealth  of  Israel" 
{Ephes.  ii.  12), — declaring  all — whether  Jews  or  Gentiles — who  had  been  "  bap- 
tized into  Christ"  to  be  "Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  according  to  the  promise" 


(     9    ) 

"  Not  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who  shall  believe  on 
Me  through  their  word  :  that  they  all  may  be  One  [Body  or 
Society],  in  order  that  the  World  may  believe  that  Thou 
hast  sent  me  ;  .  .  .  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one  [tva 

5><xu>  TereXeuafJiipoi  els  ev — THAT  THEY  MAY  BE  PERFECTLY  UNITED  IN    ONE 

Body  or  Society],  and  that  the  World  may  [thereby]  know 
that  Thou  hast  sent  Me"  {John  xvii.  21,  22). 

"  He  (Caiaphas)  prophesied  that  Jesus  should  die  for  that  nation  ;  and 
not  for  that  nation  only  ;  but  that  also  He  SHOULD  GATHER  TOGETHER 
IN  ONE  \}va  avvaydyrj  els  ev, — THAT  HE  SHOULD  COLLECT  INTO  ONE 
PEOPLE  OR  KINGDOM]  THE  CHILDREN  OF  GOD  THAT  WERE  SCATTERED 
ABROAD  "  {John  xi.  52). 

"  Other  sheep  [the  Gentiles]  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  Fold  :  them 
also   I  must  bring  [into  it],  and  THEY  SHALL  hear  My  voice  ;  and 

THERE    SHALL    BE    ONE    FOLD    AND    ONE    SHEPHERD  "    {John   X.    1 6. 

Comp.  Acts  xiii.  47,  xxviii.  28  ;  Efihes.  ii.  14  seg.,  iii.  6). 

"  There  is  One  Body,  and  One  Spirit,  .  .  .  One  Lord,  One  Faith, 
One  Baptism.  .  .  .  And  He  gave  some  [to  be]  Apostles,  .  .  .  and  some 
Pastors  and  Teachers  ;  FOR  THE  perfecting  OF  the  SAINTS,  FOR  THE 
work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edification'  of  the  body  of 
Christ  ;  until  we  all  come  into  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  son  of  god,  unto  a  perfect  man  ; 
.  .  .  that  henceforth  we  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to  and 
fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 
sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in 

WAIT  TO  DECEIVE  ;  BUT  SPEAKING  THE  TRUTH  [aXrjdevovTes — maintaining 

and  professing  the  true  faith]  in  charity,  may  GROW  UP  INTO  Him 

IN  ALL  THINGS,  WHICH  IS  THE  HEAD,  EVEN  CHRIST  "  {Ephes.  iv. 
4,5,H-I5). 

"  Christ  is  the  Head  of  THE  CHURCH  ;  and  He  is  the  Saviour  of  THE 
Body,  .  .  .  His  Body, which  is  the  Church"  {Efihes.  v.  23  ;  Coloss. 
i.  24). 

"  We  are  all  baptized  into  One  Body,1  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles, 

{Rom.  ix.  8,  24,  iv.  11,  16;  Galat.  iii.  7,  9,  29).  St.  Peter,  in  like  manner, 
applies  to  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful  the  very  titles  that  had  formerly  been 
given  to  the  Jewish  people  ;  calling  them  "a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood, 
an  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people  ;  that  they  should  show  forth  the  praises  of  Him 
who  had  called  them  out  of  darkness  into  His  marvellous  light "  {Exod.  xix.  5,  6 ; 
I  Pet.  ii.  9.     Comp.  Ephes.  ii.  19,  21  ;  Heb.  xii.  22,  28). 

1  That  the  Visible  Church  is  signified  under  the  title  of  u  Body  of  Christ "  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that,  1st,  all  the  baptized  become  members  of  it  (1  Cor. 
xii.  13.  Comp.  Acts  ii.  41,  47) ;  2dly,  these  members  have  a  "  necessary  "  depend- 
ence on  one  another  and  on  the  whole  body  ;  they  perform  various  outward  and 
visible  functions  {Rom.  xii.  4-8),  and  hold  external  as  well  as  internal  communion  ; 
so  that  "when  one  member  suffers,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it,  or  one  member 
be  honoured,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it"  (1  Cor.  xii.  15-26).  ^dly,  St.  Paul 
speaks  of  the  reception  of  the  Eucharist  as  a  necessary  bond  and^evidence  of 


(     io    ) 

whether  bond  or  free ; "  and  "  God  hath  tempered  the  Body  together, 

.  .  .  THAT  THERE  SHOULD  BE  NO  SCHISM  IN  THE  BODY.  .  .  .  For  as 
the  [natural]  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all  the  members 
of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one  body  ;  so  also  is  Christ.  .  .  .  Now 
ye  are  the   Body   of  Christ,   and   members   in   particular ;  .  .  .  MANY 

MEMBERS,  YET  BUT  ONE  BODY.   .   .   .    IS  CHRIST  DIVIDED  ?  "  (i  Cor.  xii. 

12,  13,  20,  24,  25,  27,  i.  13.  Comp.  Rom.  xii.  4,  5  ;  Ephes.  ii.  14,  15, 
iii.  6,  &c). 

"  The  Church  of  the  living  God  [is]  the  Pillar  and  Founda- 
tion of  the  truth"1  (i  Tim.  iii.  15). 

"  Unto  Him  be  glory  in  the  Church,  by  Jesus  Christ,  throughout 
all  ages,  world  without  end"  {Ephes.  iii.  21). 

"  Thou  art  Peter  (Chipha),  and  upon  this  rock  (Chipha)  I  will 
build  My  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  [UvXai  $8ov — the 
Powers  of  Darkness, — Satan  and  his  hosts]  SHALL  not  prevail  AGAINST 
IT.  And  unto  thee  will  I  give  the  Keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven," 
&.c.(Matt.  xvi.  17,  18). 

"He  that  heareth  you,  heareth  Me  ;  and  he  that  despiseth  you, 
despiseth  Me,  and  he  that  despiseth  Me,  despiseth  Him  that  sent  Me" 
{Lukex.  16). 

"  If  he  neglect  to  hear  the  Church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as  an 
heathen  man  and  a  publican.     Verily  I  say  unto  you  :  WHATSOEVER 

membership  :  "  We,  being  many,  are  One  Bread,  One  Body,  because  we  all 
partake  of  that  One  Bread"  (1  Cor.  x.  17).  Lastly,  because  the  whole  Body  is 
said  to  be  "edified"  or  "built  up"  through  the  instrumentality  of  that  visible 
hierarchy  and  ministry  which  Christ  has  set  over  it  for  that  express  purpose. 

1  See  the  notes  on  this  text  in  the  Greek  Testaments  edited  by  Bloomfield  and 
Alford.  The  former  says  that  the  attempt  made  by  some  Protestant  controver- 
sialists to  refer  the  words  "pillar  and  foundation  of  the  truth"  to  what  follows 
"lies  open  to  insuperable  objections,  as  stated  by  Poole,  Benson,  and  Scott." 
Alford  says  :  "If  a  sentence  like  this  occurred  in  the  Epistle,  I  should  feel  it 
a  weightier  argument  against  its  genuineness  than  any  which  its  opponents  have 
yet  adduced." 

To  the  interpretation  (devised  by  other  Protestant  controversialists)  which  refers 
the  words  to  Timothy,  Dean  Alford  says  :  u  To  the  sentence  thus  arranged  and 
understood  there  are  weighty  and,  I  conceive,  fatal  objections."  Bloomfield 
says  :  "  The  natural  connection  of  the  words  is  certainly  not,  as  some  imagine, 
to  Timothy  ;  for  that  would  be  an  utter  violation  of  the  construction,  and  involve 
somewhat  of  an  incongruity.  .  .  .  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  true  refer- 
ence is  to  tjtls  iarlv  eV/cXijoVa  ["which  is  the  Church"  &c],  as  was  maintained  by 
almost  all  the  ancient  expositors  and  many  eminent  Protestant  commentators,  as 
Grotius,  Bishop  Hall,  Calvin,  Hammond,  Gothofred,  Weber,  Schmid,  Deyling, 
Whitby,  Macknight,  and  Bishop  Van  Mildert ;  and  of  the  recent  expositors,  Dr. 
Peile  ;  and  of  the  foreign,  Wiesing,  Iluther,  and  Mack,  who  understand  it  of  the 
Church  universal,  administered  under  an  external  form  of  government,  and  which, 
by  maintaining  the  revelation  of  God  and  His  religion,  upholds  it  as  a  foundation 
does  a  building,  or  as  pillars  support  an  edifice.  .  .  .  Any  other  mode  of  explana- 
tion is,  both  philologically  and  otherwise,  quite  untenable"  (note  in  loc). 


(  11  ) 

ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,"  &c.  {Matt,  xviii.  17, 
18). 

"He  that  despiseth,  despiseth  NOT  man,  but  God"  (i  Thess.  iv.  8. 
Comp.  ch.  ii.  13). 

"  We  are  of  God  :  he  that  knoweth  God,  heareth  us  ;  he  that 
is  not  of  God,  heareth  us  not.      Hereby  know  we  the  spirit  of 

TRUTH,  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  ERROR  "  (i  John  iv.  6). 

(See  also  Acts  ii.  42,  47,  xv.  6,  28,  xvi.  4,  xx.  28,  30;  Rom.  xvi.  17 '; 
1  Cor.  i.  10,  xi.  16 ;  Heb.  xiii.  7,  9,  17  ;  Galat.  i.  9  ;  1  Tim.  i.  3,  20  ;  2 
Tim.  ii.  17,  18 ;  Titus  i.  10,  11,  iii.  10,  II,  &c.) 

With  these  declarations  of  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles 
should  be  compared  the  following  and  similar  prophecies  of 
the  Old  Testament : — 

"  In  thee  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed.  .  .  . 
And  thy  seed  shall  be  as  the  dust  of  the  earth  ;  and  thou  shalt  spread 
abroad  to  the  West,  and  to  the  East,  and  to  the  North,  and  to  the  South  ; 
and  in  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  BE  BLESSED"  {Gen.  xii.  3,  xxii.  18,  xxviii.  14.  Comp.  Rom.  ivk 
11-17,  ix.  8,  24;  Galat.  iii.  7-9,  26-29;  Efihes.  iii.  6;  Matt.  viii.  11; 
Luke  xiii.  29. 

"  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between 
his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come,  and  unto  Him  shall  the  gathering  of 
the  PEOPLE  be"  {Gen.  xlix.  10.     Comp.  John  xi.  52,  xii.  32). 

"  Yet  have  I  set  My  King  upon  My  holy  hill  of  Zion.  .  .  .  Ask  of  Me, 
and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thy  inheritance,  and  the 

UTTERMOST  PARTS  OF  THE  EARTH   FOR  THY  POSSESSION.      Thou  shalt 

break  them  with  a  rod  of  iron ;  thou  shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a 
potter's  vessel "  {Psalm  ii.  6-9).  This  prophecy  is  applied  to  the  Messias 
in  Acts  iv.  25,  xiii.  32,  33  ;  Heb.  i.  5,  v.  5  ;  Rev.  ii.  27,  xii.  5,  xix.  15. 

"  He  Shall  have  DOMINION  ALSO  FROM  SEA  TO  SEA,  AND  FROM  THE 
RIVER  UNTO  THE  ENDS  OF  THE  EARTH.  .  .  .  ALL  KINGS  SHALL  FALL 
DOWN   BEFORE   HlM  ;  ALL  NATIONS   SHALL  SERVE   HlM "   {Psalm  lxxii. 

8,  9.  Comp.  Zech.  ix.  9,  10 ;  Matt.  xxi.  41  seg.).  See  also  Psalm  ex. 
(comp.  Matt.  xxii.  43-45  ;  Acts  ii.  34-36 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  25  \  Heb.  v.  6). 

"  And  the  STONE  that  smote  the  image  became  a  GREAT  MOUNTAIN, 
AND  FILLED  THE  WHOLE  EARTH.  .  .  .  And  in  the  days  of  these  kings 
[of  the  Roman  Empire]  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  A  kingdom 

WHICH  SHALL  NEVER  BE  DESTROYED  :  AND  ...   IT   SHALL  STAND  FOR 

ever"  {Dan.  ii.  35,  44  ;  Luke  i.  33  ;  Heb.  xii.  28). 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,1  that  THE  MOUNTAIN  OF 
the  Lord's  House  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the  moun- 

1  "  The  last  days,"  i.e.,  in  the  present  Christian  Dispensation.  See  Acts  ii. 
16,  17 ;  Heb.  i.  2 ;  I  Cor.  x.  11 ;  I  Pet.  i.  20.  Comp.  Ephes.  i.  10 ;  Galat.  iv.  4 
(" the  fulness  of  times'"). 


(       «      ) 


TAINS,  AND   SHALL  BE  EXALTED  ABOVE  THE   HILLS,  AND  ALL  NATIONS 

SHALL  FLOW  UNTO  IT.  An.d  many  people  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye, 
and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  House  of  the  God  of 
Jacob  :  and  He  will  teach  us  of  His  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  His  paths  : 
for  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from 
Jerusalem"1  {Isai.  ii.  2,  3;  Micah  iv.  1,  2).  The  early  Fathers  were 
unanimous  in  interpreting  these  texts  of  the  CHURCH  of  Christ, — as 
also  are  the  most  learned  Protestant  commentators,  such  as  Stanhope, 
Mant,  Michaelis,  Lowth,  Clarke,  Scott,  Patrick,  Henderson,  &c. 

"  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light.  .  .  .  For 
unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall 
be  upon  his  shoulder  :  ...  Of  the  increase  of  his  government 

AND    PEACE    THERE    SHALL  BE  NO  END,"  &C.    {Isai.  ix.   2,  6,  7.      Comp. 

Matt,  iv.  14-17  ;  Luke  i.  32,  33,  79,  ii.  32). 

"And  thine  eyes  shall  see  thy  teachers:  and  thine  ears 
shall  hear  a  voice  behind  thee  saying,  this  is  the  way,  walk 
ye  in  it,  when  ye  turn  to  the  right  hand,  and  when  ye  turn  to 
the  left"  {Isai.  xxx.  21).  See  also  Isai.  xxxv.  4-8,  xl.  3-1 1  (comp. 
Matt.  iii.  3  ;  Luke  i.  76,  iii.  3-6) ;  Isai.  xlii.  1  seq.  (comp.  Matt.  xii. 
17-21). 

"And  He  said,  It  is  a  light  thing  that  thou  [the  Messias]  shouldest  be 
My  servant  to  raise  up  the  tribes  of  Jacob,  and  to  restore  the  preserved 
of  Israel ;  I  will  also  give  thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  that 

THOU  MAYEST  BE  My  SALVATION  UNTO  THE  ENDS  OF  THE  EARTH.   .   .   . 

Kings  shall  see  and  arise,  princes  also  shall  worship.  .  .  .  The  children 
which  thou  [Zion — the  Church]  shall  have  shall  say,  The  place  is  too 
strait  for  me  :  give  place  to  me  that  I  may  dwell.  .  .  .  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God,  Behold  I  will  lift  up  mine  hand  to  the  Gentiles,  and  set  up 
my  standard  to  the  people  :  and  they  shall  bring  thy  sons  in  their  arms, 
and  thy  daughters  shall  be  carried  upon  their  shoulders.     And  kings 

SHALL  BE  THY  NURSING  FATHERS,  AND  THEIR  QUEENS  THY  NURSING 
MOTHERS  :  THEY  SHALL  BOW  DOWN  TO  THEE  WITH  THEIR  FACE  TOWARD 
THE  EARTH,  AND  LICK  UP  THE  DUST  OF  THY  FEET"  {Isai.  xlix.  6,  7,  20- 

23.     Comp.  Acts  xiii.  47  ;  Luke  ii.  32  ;  Rom.  xi.  12,  15,  25,  xv.  9,  12,  21). 

See  also  Isai.  Iii.  1,  7,  10,  13-15.     Comp.  Rom.  x.  15,  xv.  21  ;  Luke  iii.  6). 

"  Sing,  O  barren,2  thou  that  didst  not  bear ....  Enlarge  the  place  of 

•*  "  Out  of  Zion,"  &c.  Comp.  Luke  xxiv.  47.  "Zion"  and  "Jerusalem"  are, 
however,  the  titles  of  the  Christian  Church.  See  Galat.  iv.  26 ;  Heb.  xii.  22.  To 
the  objection  that  the  peace  so  vividly  described  in  Isai.  ii.  4,  has  not  existed  in  the 
present  dispensation,  it  may  be  replied,  1st,  that  the  language  is  highly  figurative ; 
2.dly,  that  still  stronger  expressions  are  used  to  describe  the  "  peace  "  spoken  of  in 
ch.  xi.  6-10,  as  existing  under  the  Messias  (comp.  Acts  xiii.  23  ;  Rom.  xv.  12)  ; 
and,  as  Henderson  admits,  "  with  regard  to  the  application  of  this  prophecy  to 
the  Messiah,  a  greater  degree  of  unanimity  obtains  among  interpreters  than  in 
reference  to  almost  any  other." 

2  In  most  of  the  ancient  prophecies  which  refer  to  the  Christian  Church  or 
Dispensation,  the  Messias  is  spoken  of  as  continuing  and  prolonging  the  Old 


(     '3     ) 


thy  tent,  and  let  them  stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habitations  : 
spare  not ;   lengthen  thy  cords,  and  strengthen  thy  stakes  :    For  THOU 

SHALT  BREAK  FORTH  ON  THE  RIGHT  HAND  AND  ON  THE  LEFT  ;  AND 
THY  SEED  SHALL  INHERIT  THE  GENTILES,  AND  MAKE  THE  DESOLATE 
CITIES  TO  BE  INHABITED.   .   .    .   AS  I  HAVE  SWORN  THAT  THE  WATERS  OF 

Noah  should  no  more  go  over  the  earth  ;  so  have  I  sworn  that 

I  WOULD  NOT  BE  WROTH  WITH  THEE,  NOR  REBUKE  THEE.  FOR  THE 
MOUNTAINS  SHALL  DEPART,  AND  THE  HILLS  BE  REMOVED  ;  BUT  THY 
KINDNESS  SHALL  NOT  DEPART  FROM  THEE,  NEITHER  SHALL  THE  COVE- 
NANT OF  MY  PEACE  BE  REMOVED,  SAITH  THE  LORD  THAT  HATH 
MERCY  ON  THEE.    .   .   .   ALL  THY  CHILDREN  SHALL  BE  TAUGHT  OF  THE 

Lord,  and  great  shall  be  the  peace  of  thy  children.  .  .  .  No 

WEAPON  THAT  IS  FORMED  AGAINST  THEE  SHALL  PROSPER  J  AND  EVERY 
TONGUE  THAT  SHALL  ARISE  IN  JUDGMENT  AGAINST  THEE,  THOU  SHALT 
CONDEMN"  (Isai.  liv.  i,  2,  3,  9,  10,  17).  This  prophecy  is  expressly 
applied  to  the  Christian  Church  by  St.  Paul  in  Galat.  iv.  22-31.  Comp. 
Rom.  ix.  24-26. 

"And  the  Redeemer  shall  come  to  Zion.  ...  As  for  Me,  this  is  My 
covenant  with  them,  saith  the  Lord  :  My  Spirit  that  is  upon  thee, 

AND  MY  WORDS  WHICH  I  HAVE  PUT  IN  THY  MOUTH,  SHALL  NOT  DEPART 
OUT  OF  THY  MOUTH,  NOR  OUT  OF  THE  MOUTH  OF  THY  SEED,  NOR  OUT 
OF  THE  MOUTH  OF  THY  SEED'S  SEED,  SAITH  THE  LORD,  FROM  HENCE- 
FORTH AND  FOR  ever"  {Isai.  lix.  20,  21.  Comp.  Jerem.  xxxi.  31-34; 
cited  by  St.  Paul  in  Heb.  viii.  7-13). 

"  The  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of 
thy  rising  :  .  .  .  the  abundance  of  the  sea  shall  be  converted  unto  thee, 
the  forces  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee.  .  .  .  Thy  gates  shall 

BE  OPEN  CONTINUALLY  ;  THEY  SHALL  NOT  BE  SHUT  DAY  NOR  NIGHT  ; 
THAT  MEN  MAY  BRING  UNTO  THEE  THE  FORCES  OF  THE  GENTILES,  AND 


Economy  ;  the  Christian  Polity  being  described,  not  as  something  antagonistic  to 
or  different  from  that  which  then  existed,  viz.,  the  Jewish,  but  rather  as  its 
transformation,  perfection,  and  development.  The  future  Church  of  the  Gentiles 
is  identified  with  the  Jewish  Church  then  existing;  and  the  prophecies  relating  to 
the  establishment  and  increase  of  the  Church  of  the  Messias  are  addressed  to  her 
in  her  imperfect,  "barren,"  and  undeveloped  state,  confined  and  limited  as  she 
then  was  to  one  small  nation  and  people. 

Many  of  these  prophecies  were  declared  by  our  Lord  or  His  Apostles  to  have 
received,  or  to  be  about  to  receive,  their  fulfilment  by  the  establishment  or 
increase  of  the  Christian  or  Gentile  Church  (see  Matt.  hi.  2,  3,  iv.  16,  17, 
v.  17,  viii.  11,  xi.  3,  4,  12-14,  xii.  17-21,  28,  xxi.  4-15,  43  ;  Luke  ii.  32, 
iv.  18-21,  vii.  27,  28,  xi.  20,  xvi.  16,  xvii.  21  ;  Acts  ii.  16-36,  xiii.  23,  32, 
33,  47,  xv.  14-17  ;  Rom.  iv.  16,  ix.  8,  24,  25,  x.  20,  xi.  12,  15,  25,  xv.  9,  12, 
21,  xvi.  26;  Galat.  hi.  7,  9,  14,  16,  26-29,  1V-  26-31  ;  Ephes.  ii.  12,  iii.  6; 
Heb.  viii.  6-12,  x.  16,  xii.  22,  28,  &c.)  ;  and,  from  the  earliest  ages,  all  the 
great  Christian  Apologists  unhesitatingly  appealed  to  their  actual  fulfilment  in  the 
present  Dispensation,  as  being  one  of  the  most  luminous  evidences  of  the  Divine 
mission  of  Christ  and  of  the  Church  which  He  established. 


(     14     ) 

THAT  THEIR  KINGS  MAY  BE  BROUGHT.      FOR  THE  NATION  AND  KING- 
DOM THAT  WILL  NOT  SERVE  THEE  SHALL  PERISH.   .   .   .   The  sons  also  of 

them  that  afflicted  thee  shall  come  bending  unto  thee  ;  and  all  they  that 
despised  thee  shall  bow  themselves  down  at  the  soles  of  thy  feet ;  and 
they  shall  call  thee,  the  City  of  the  Lord,  the  Zion  of  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel"  (/sat.  lx.  3,  5,  11,  14.  Comp.  vers.  1,  2,  with  Matt. 
iv.  16,  17  ;  ver.  14  with  Heb.  xii.  22,  Matt.  v.  14  ;  and  ver.  5  seq.  with 
Rom.  xi.  12,  15,  25,  &c).  See  also  /sat.  lxi.  (Comp.  Luke  iv.  17-21); 
/sat.  lxii.  1-7,  11,  12,  lxv.  1  seq.  (Comp.  Ro?n.  x.  20,  ix.  24,  30.) 
1  "  From  the  rising  of  the  sun,  even  to  the  going  down  of  the 
same,  My  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles,  and  in  every 
place  incense  shall  be  offered  to  My  name,  and  a  pure  offering  ;  for  My 
name  shall  be  great  among  the  heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts  "  {Mai. 
i.  11.     Comp.  Rom.  xv.  16). 

II.  From  the  passages  of  Scripture  above  cited  it  is  also 
evident  that,  in  order  to  secure  and  effect  the  unfailing  pre- 
servation and  world-wide  propagation  of  His  true  Faith  and 
Religion,  that  CHURCH  or  TEACHING  BODY,  which  the 
Redeemer  appointed  to  be  the  Organ  and  Instrument  of  its 
preservation  and  extension,  must,  among  the  characteristics 
and  prerogatives  which  are  essential  to  it,  possess — 

(1.)  Perpetual  Visibility  ; 

(2.)  Apostolicity — the  Orders  and  Mission  of  its 
Pastors,  as  well  as  its  Doctrine  and  whole  Polity, 
being  transmitted  through  continuous  and  legitimate  SUC- 
CESSION from  the  Apostles  ; 

(3.)  Catholicity — or  Universality  as  to  Time  (or 
Duration),  Place  (or  Extent),  and  Doctrine  ; 

(4.)  Unity — in  its  Faith,  Sacraments,  Public  Wor- 
ship, and  Government  ; 

(5.)  Infallibility — or  Inerrancy  in  its  Teaching  ; 
which  five  marks  and  prerogatives  of  the  true  Church  may, 
for  the  purpose  of  this  argument,  be  mainly  reduced  to  two 
only,  viz.,  CATHOLICITY  and  UNITY;  it  being  sufficient  to 
observe  that  the  Church  must  have  been  endowed,  in  the  first 
place,  with  a  THREEFOLD  CATHOLICITY— 

(1.)  of  Time  or  Duration, 
(2.)  of  Place  or  Extent, 
(3.)  of  Doctrine, 


(     <5     ) 

in  order  to  fulfil  the  great  Commission  given  to  her  by  her 
Divine  Founder,  viz.,  to  TEACH — 
(i.)  "  Always,  to  the  end  of  the  world,"  or  "  until 

WE  ALL  COME  INTO  THE  UNITY  OF  THE  FAITH  "  (Catholicity 

of  Time)  ; 

(2.)   To  "  ALL  NATIONS,"  and  "  EVERY  CREATURE  "  (Catho- 
licity of  Place,  or  Extent)  ; * 

(3.)  "ALL  THINGS  WHATSOEVER"  her  Lord  had  "COM- 
MANDED," "  ALL  TRUTH  "  (Catholicity  of  DOCTRINE)  ; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  that  this  Church  must  be  so  essen- 
tially and  organically  "  One  "— ("  One  FOLD,"  "  One  Body," 
One  "  Kingdom,"  "  City,"  or  "  House,"  that  cannot  be 
"DIVIDED  AGAINST  ITSELF");2  and,  throughout  her  whole 
domain,  and  in  every  age,  must  so  visibly  manifest  her 
Divinely-secured  Unity — 

(1.)  of  Faith,  or  Doctrinal  Teaching  and  Belief, 

(2.)  of  Communion, 

(3.)  of  Regimen  or  Government, 

1  When  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  speaks  of  the  Church  as 
receiving  "the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles,"  and  causing  the  reconciliation  of 
"the  world"  by  her  preaching  of  the  Gospel  (see  Rom.  i.  5,  8,  x.  14-17, 
xi.  12,  15,  25,  xv.  12,  18,  xvi.  26,  &c.),  could  any  doubt  that  the  fulfilment  of 
such  prophecies  as  Isai.  liv.,  lx.,  Mai.  i.  11,  was  shortly  to  be  effected  through 
her  instrumentality  ?  Or,  when  again — writing  to  the  same  Church  of  Rome,  he 
said  that  God  "would  bruise  Satan  under  their  feet  shortly"  {Rom. 
xvi.  20) — evidently  referring  to  the  ancient  prophecy  that  "  the  Seed  of  the  woman 
should  bruise  the  Serpent's  head"  {Gen.  iii.  15),  and  to  our  Lord's  declaration  that 
He  was  about  to  ' '  cast  out  the  Prince  of  this  world,  and  to  draw  all  men  unto 
Himself" — could  he  have  meant  anything  else  than  that  that  great  City,  which 
was  then  the  head  and  centre  of  Pagan  idolatry — "the  mother  of  harlots  and 
abominations  of  the  earth  "  {Rev.  xvii.  5) — should  shortly  become  the  head  and 
centre  of  the  true  religion,  the  mother  of  all  Churches,  and  mainspring  of  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  through  the  entire  world  ? 

2  The  very  titles  of  "  Kingdom,"  "  City,"  and  "  House,"  so  often  given  to 
the  Church  in  Scripture  (see  the  texts  above  quoted  ;  especially  Isai.  ii.  2,  lx.  14, 
lxii.  12;  Ban.  ii.  44;  Heb.  xii.  28;  Matt.  v.  14;  Ephes.  ii.  21;  Coloss.  i.  13  ; 
1  Tim.  iii.  15  ;  2  Tim.  ii.  20  ;  Heb.  iii.  6,  x.  21,  xii.  22  ;  1  Pet.  ii.  5,  iv.  17,  &c), 
when  taken  in  connection  with  the  promises  of  her  perpetuity,  necessarily  imply 
her  absolute  and  organic  Unity  :  for  "  Every  Kingdom,  divided  against  itself,  is 
brought  to  desolation  ;  and  every  city  or  house,  divided  against  itself,  will  not  stand" 
{Matt.  xii.  25).  On  one  Rock  was  this  Church  built ;  to  one  were  the  "  Keys  " 
— the  symbol  of  supreme  power,  the  mastership  over  the  Lord's  House,  the 
guardianship  of  the  Lord's  City — committed  ;  to  ONE  was  the  Pastorship  of  the 
whole  Flock  delegated  {John  xxi.  15-17);  in  order  that  the  Unity  of  the  same 
might  be  both  manifested  and  secured. 


(     16     ) 

as  not  only  to  present  to  the  unbelieving  "  WORLD  "  (John 
xvii.  21,  23;  Rom.  i.  8,  xi.  15;  Coloss.  i.  6)  a  plain  token 
and  evidence  of  the  Divine  Mission  of  her  Founder,  but  also 
to  guarantee  to  her  own  faithful  children,  and  to  all  seekers 
after  the  Truth,  entire  exemption  from  and  security  against 
the  vain  and  ever-varying  speculations  of  all  mere  human 
teachers  and  heretical  innovators. 

III.  Hence  it  necessarily  follows :  that  no  Church  or 
body  of  professing  Christians  can  claim  or  pretend  to  be 
the  true  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  cannot  prove 
itself— 

(1.)  To  have  had  a  VISIBLE  EXISTENCE  IN  ALL  AGES  FROM 
THE  TIME  OF  CHRIST  ; 

(2.)  To  have  been  continually  engaged  in  fulfilling, 
through  a  Ministry  duly  ordained  and  "  sent"  the  Commission 
given  to  it  by  Christ, — by  "DISCIPLING  AND  Bi^PTIZlNG," 
and  thus  progressively  extending  her  dominion  over  "ALL 
NATIONS  "  of  the  world  ; 

(3.)  Teaching  them  the  WHOLE1  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ, 

1  But  not,  of  course,  always  and  everywhere  with  the  same  explicitness  and 
fulness  (see  I  Cor.  iii.  I,  2;  Heb.  v.  11-14).  It  is  well  known  that,  during 
several  centuries,  the  Canon  of  Scripture  itself  remained  undetermined  ;  and  Pro- 
testants themselves  will  hardly  deny  that  the  Nicene  Creed  contained  a  develop- 
ment of  the  doctrine  contained  in  that  of  the  Apostles,  or  that  the  Athanasian 
Creed  contained  a  still  further  development  or  explication  of  the  Christian  Faith 
regarding  the  Holy  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation. 

"  There  has  ever  been,"  says  Dr.  W.  Todd,  "and  there  is  still,  a  gradual  and 
very  striking  growth  of  Christian  doctrine  in  the  Church.  Truths  which  were  once 
held  in  their  naked  simplicity  have  unfolded,  by  a  necessary  development,  more  and 
more  of  the  profound  mysteries  contained  within  each  of  them.  As  time  goes  on, 
the  Christian  intellect,  leaning  upon  the  support  of  the  Church,  is  enabled  to  see 
more  clearly  the  bearing  of  one  doctrine  upon  another,  its  relation  to  truths  that 
flow  out  of  it,  its  place  in  the  analogy  of  the  faith,  its  full  scope  and  significance. 
Dogmas,  in  some  sense  new,  spring  out  of  more  general  truths, — new  because 
hitherto  only  faintly  perceived,  though  in  germ  and  in  substance  they  have  always 
been  in  the  revelation  of  Christ.  All  theologians  admit  a  progression  of  doctrine 
in  the  Church  ;#  and  unless  Christianity  be  nothing  more  than  a  bare  and  dry  code 
of  laws,  there  must  be  some  such  progression.  Every  truth  that  comes  from  God 
must  contain  within  itself  unsearchable  treasures  of  wisdom.  It  is  like  a  seed 
sown  in  the  earth,  which  grows  and  spreads  into  a  large  tree.  But  this  growth  is 
only  in  the  Church.  Outside,  truth  is  questioned,  doubted,  torn  in  pieces,  tossed 
about  by  every  vain  blast.  Within,  there  is  a  consistent  and  true  growth.  And 
everything  favours  this  growth — the  meditations  of  the  devout,  the  inquiries  of  the 
learned,  nay,  the  very  contradictions  of  the  heretics.     For  the  greater  part  of  the 


(     *7     ) 

and  instructing  them  in  "ALL"  His  Doctrines,  Precepts,  and 
Ordinances  ; 

(4.)  Always  and  everywhere  so  manifesting  herself  as 
"  One," — in  her  Faith,  Public  Worship,  Sacraments,  and 
Government, — as  to  present  to  the  whole  world  a  proof  of  her 
Divine  Origin,  and  of  her  being  in  possession  of  an  unerring 
Teaching  Authority,  such  as  must  at  all  times  bring  those 
who  submit  to  it  to  "  meet  in  the  unity  of  the  faith"  and  pre- 
serve them  from  being  carried  about  by  the  various  blasts 
of  false  doctrine,  to  which  those  outside  the  pale  of  the  true 
Church  are  continually  exposed. 

IV.  Now,  no  Protestant  Church — i.e.,  no  Church  out 
of  communion  with,  or  teaching  doctrines  opposed  to,  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church — was,  or  ever  pretended  to  have 
been,  thus  Visible,  Apostolic,  Catholic,  and  One, 
either  before  or  subsequently  to  the  time  of  the  so-called 
"  Reformation." 

It  was  not  by  any  such  Church,1  it  was    not  by  any  of 

decrees  of  Councils  and  decisions  of  the  Holy  See  have  originated  in  the  neces- 
sity of  guarding  the  faithful  against  the  false  opinions  put  forth  by  those  who  are 
separated  from  the  Church.  In  this  way,  even  the  attempt  to  sow  discord  and  to 
bring  in  false  doctrine  has  only  tended  to  the  completion  and  perfection  of 
Catholic  doctrine"  {Led.  on  the  Inspiration  and  Interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture, 
1863,  p.  66).  See  also  The  Written  Word,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Humphrey,  1877, 
pp.  199-206.  Cardinal  Newman's  remark,  that  "  the  growth  or  development 
in  the  Church's  teaching  proceeds  on  fixed  laws,  under  the  safeguard  of  her  infalli- 
bility, which  secures  her  from  whatever  is  abnormal  or  unhealthy,"  is  alone  enough 
to  show  the  futility  of  the  ordinary  Protestant  objections  in  regard  to  it. 

The  principle  of  development  of  Christian  doctrine  is  admitted  by  the  Anglican 
Bishop  Butler,  who  remarks  that  "it  is  not  at  all  incredible  that  a  book  [the 
Bible],  which  has  been  so  long  in  the  possession  of  mankind,  should  contain  many 
truths  as  yet  undiscovered,"  and  that  "possibly  it  might  be  intended  that  events 
as  they  come  to  pass  should  open  and  ascertain  the  meaning  of  several  parts  of 
Scripture  "  {Analogy,  pt.  ii.  ch.  iii.  sect.  9). 

1  Some  Protestants  are  still  fond  of  referring  to  the  miserable  hole-and-corner 
sects  of  the  Middle  Ages, — the  Albigenses,  Waldenses,  Catharists,  &c, 
— as  having  promulgated  in  their  day  some  doctrines  akin  to  those  of  modern 
sectaries ;  but  the  true  history  of  the  origin,  doctrines,  and  principles  of  those 
"precursors  of  the  Reformation"  has  been  thoroughly  exposed  during  the  last 
half-century  by  candid  Protestant  writers, — such  as  Hallam  {Middle  Ages,  ch. 
ix.),  Maitland  {Facts  and  Documents  illustrative  of  the  History,  Doctrines,  and 
Riles  of  the  Ancient  Albigenses  and  Waldenses,  1832  ;  and  Letter  to  Dr.  Mill,  con- 
taining Strictures  on  Mr.  Fabeifs  Work,  &=c,  1839),  and  Todd  {Discourses  on  the 

B 


(     13     ) 

the  sects  of  Protestantism,  either  separately  or  collectively, 
it  was  not  by  any  of  their  "  Bible  "  or  "  Missionary  "  societies 
that  the  Commission  given  by  Christ  to  "DISCIPLE  AND 
BAPTIZE  ALL  NATIONS,"  was  in  every  or  in  any  former  age 

Prophecies  relating  to  Antichrist,  Donnellan  Lectures  in  Trin.  Coll.,  Dublin, 
1840,  notes,  pp.  399-453.  See  also  Neander's  Church  Hist.,  Bonn's  edit., 
vol.  viii.  pp.  283  sea.,  295-331,  350  sea. ;  Blunt's  Diet,  of  Sects,  &c.  ;  and  a 
valuable  work  entitled  Origines  Protestanticce,  or  Suggestions  for  an  Historical 
Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  the  Protestant  Religion,  Longhurst,  Lond.,  1877)  ;  and 
what  Protestants  are  really  called  upon  to  do  is  to  show,  if  they  can,  some  other 
Church  than  the  Catholic  which  has  fulfilled  Christ's  commission  by  "  teaching 
and  baptizing  all  nations," — some  other  Church  which  has  been  in  all  ages  "the 
Light  of  the  world,"  "the  Pillar  and  Foundation  of  the  Truth,"  "the  City  set 
on  a  hill  which  could  not  be  hid."  According  to  all  Protestant  accounts,  the 
growth  or  development  of  the  Christian  Church  resembled,  at  the  best,  that  of  a 
miserable  tapeworm  ;  whereas,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels,  it  was 
to  be  like  that  of  a  Tree, — a  tree  "  shooting  out  great  branches  "  {Mark  iv.  32), 
and  giving  shelter  and  protection  to  "  all  nations  "  of  the  world. 

Of  the  schismatical  Greek  Church  little  need  here  be  said, — 1st,  because  in 
all  the  Articles  of  Faith  controverted  by  Protestants  (with  the  exception  of  that  of 
the  Pope's  Supremacy — distinctly  acknowledged  by  the  Greek  Church  itself  in 
the  great  Councils  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon  ;  see  Father  Gallwey's  Lectures  on 
Ritualism,  Nos.  7  and  8),  that  Church  has  always  been  at  one  with  the  Catholic 
Church  ;  and,  idly,  because  the  Eastern  Church,  since  its  separation  from  the  rest 
of  Christendom,  has  never  been-  in  any  sense  a  Missionary  Church ;  and  could 
make  no  pretensions  to  the  possession  of  those  essential  marks  of  the  true  Church 
above  referred  to, — viz. ,  Catholicity,  Unity,  &c.  (see  De  M AISTRE  on  The  Pope, 
Eng.  trans.,  pp.  308-340). 

Dr.  Milman  (late  Dean  of  St.  Paul's)  says  :— "  At  the  extinction  of  Paganism, 
Greek,  or,  as  it  may  now  be  called,  in  opposition  to  the  West,  Eastern  Chris- 
tianity, had  almost  ceased  to  be  aggressive  or  creative.  Except  the  contested 
conversion  of  the  Bulgarians,  later  of  the  Russians,  and  a  few  wild  tribes,  it 
achieved  no  conquests.  .  .  .  The  Greek  hierarchy  had  now  [a  few  centuries 
later]  lost  their  unity  of  action,  .  .  .  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  was  the  passive 
victim,  the  humble  slave,  or  the  factious  adversary  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor.  .  .  . 
The  lower  clergy  sank  downward  into  the  common  ignorance,  and  yielded  to  that 
worst  barbarism — a  worn-out  civilisation  "  (Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity,  Introduct., 
vol.  i.  ed.  1867)  "  The  effete  and  hopeless  East"  (lb.  vol.  ii.  p.  413). 

Neander,  the  German  (Protestant)  Church  historian,  says  that  "in  the  Greek 
Church  ...  all  true  intellectual  progress  had  long  since  been  suppressed  by  a 
political  and  spiritual  despotism  "  (Hist,  of  the  Church,  Bohn's  edit.,  vol.  v. 
p.  233) ;  and  that  "  the  healthful  and  free  evolution  of  the  Church  and  of  theo- 
logy among  the  Greeks  was  hindered  by  two  causes — the  despotism  of  the  civil 
government,  before  which  everything  crouched  —  the  Bishops  themselves  not 
seldom  consenting  to  act  as  its  humble  instruments ;  and  the  extinction  of  the 
sense  of  truth,  the  spirit  of  insincerity,  already  a  predominant  trait  which  had 
stamped  itself  on  the  entire  life  of  the  people"  (lb.  vol.  vi.  p.  261).  And  again  : 
— "  In  comparison  with  the  fulness  of  life,  manifesting  itself  under  such  a  variety 


(     *9    ) 

fulfilled  (in  fact,  it  is  notorious  that  NO  SINGLE  NATION  OF 
the  earth  was  ever  yet  converted  from  heathenism 
by  Protestant  agency  or  to  the  profession  of  Pro- 
testant Christianity);  nor  can  it  be  pretended  that, 
before  the  sixteenth  century,  there  existed  throughout  the 
world  any  body  of  PROTESTANT  "Pastors  and  Teachers" 
which  had  been  provided  by  God  "for  the  perfecting  of  the 
Saints,  for  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the 
Body  of  Christ;'''  and  for  bringing  all  men  to  "meet  in  the 
unity  of  the  faith"  and  so  preserving  them  therein,  that  they 
were  no  longer  liable  to  be  "  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried 
about  by  the  blasts  of  false  and  heretical  doctrine"  {Ephes.  iv. 
11-15).  In  fact,  no  Protestant  can  for  a  moment  admit  that 
"the  nations"  were,  during  many  centuries  preceding  the 
pretended  Reformation,  "  taught  to  observe  all  things  what- 
soever Christ  had  commanded"  or  that  that  Church,  which 
did,  in  point  of  fact,  "teach"  them,  was  "THE  PlLLAR  AND 
Foundation  of  the  Truth,"  and  "guided  into  all 

TRUTH  BY  THE  SPIRIT  OF  TRUTH,"  when  she  did  so.1 

of  forms,  and  moving  in  such  various  directions,  in  the  Church  of  the  West,  the 
Greek  Church  presents  a  melancholy  spectacle  of  stiff  and  torpid  uniformity. 
While  the  ecclesiastical  monarchy  of  the  West  could  lead  onward  the  mental 
development  of  the  nations  to  the  age  of  majority,  could  permit  and  promote 
freedom  and  variety  within  certain  limits — the  brute  force  of  Byzantine  despotism, 
on  the  other  hand,  stifled  and  checked  every  free  movement"  (lb.  vol.  viii. 
p.  244). 

Marsden  says  : — "Buried  beneath  the  ruins  of  a  fallen  empire,  the  Eastern 
Church  drags  on  a  lingering  existence.  .  .  .  In  tracing  the  expiring  form  of  this 
decayed  fabric ,  we  search  in  vain  for  those  striking  features  which  mark  her  ambitions 
rival  of  the  West"  (Diet,  of  Christian  Churches  and  Sects,  London,  1855). 

Hallam  declares  his  conviction  that  "the  Greek  Church,  notwithstanding  the 
leniency  with  which  Protestant  writers  have  treated  it,  was  always  more  corrupt 
and  intolerant  than  the  Latin  "  (Middle  Ages,  ch.  ix.  part  ii.  note).  Compare  Dr. 
Isaac  Taylor's  Ancient  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  pp.  173,  192,  205,  213,  214,  &c.  ; 
and  Professor  J.  H.  Todd's  Discourses  on  the  Prophecies  relating  to  Antichrist, 
PP-  330,  342,  351. 

1  The  Homily  of  the  Church  of  England,  On  Peril  of  Idolatry,  part  iii., 
declares  that  "clergy  and  laity,  learned  and  unlearned,  ALL  ages,  sects,  and 

DEGREES  OF  MEN,  WOMEN,  AND  CHILDREN,  OF  WHOLE  CHRISTENDOM,  HAVE 
BEEN  AT  ONCE  DROWNED  IN  DAMNABLE  IDOLATRY,  AND  THAT  BY  THE  SPACE 
OF  EIGHT  HUNDRED  YEARS  AND  MORE." 

Chillingworth  says  that  "all  the  visible  Churches  in  the  world 
had  degenerated  from   the   purity   of  the   Gospel,"   and  that  the  Church  was 


(     *°     ) 

Even  during  the  few  centuries  of  the  existence  of  Protes- 
tantism, notwithstanding  the  immense  advantages  and  faci- 
lities which  the  invention  of  pri?iting,  and  a  remarkable  com- 
bination of  favourable  circumstances — literary,  commercial, 
and  political — have  placed  in  the  hands  of  its  missionaries 
(enabling  them  to  scatter  abroad,  as  they  themselves  boast, 
hundreds  of  millions  of  copies  of  Bibles,  New  Testaments,  and 
other  books,  translated  into  the  languages  of  all  known  coun- 
tries of  the  world),  it  is  certain  that  the  most  signal  failure 
has  attendedj  all  their  efforts  to  convert  heathen  nations ; l 

"corrupted  universally"  {Religion  of  Protestants ;  chap.  v.  sects.  13  and 
27). 

Dr.  Perkins  : — "We  say  that  before  the  days  of  Luther,  for  the  space  of 

MANY  HUNDRED  YEARS,    AN   UNIVERSAL  APOSTASY  OVERSPREAD  THE  WHOLE 
FACE  OF  THE  EARTH,  AND  THAT  OUR  CHURCH  WAS  NOT  THEN  VISIBLE  TO  THE 

world  "  (On  the  Creed,  p.  400). 

Dr.  Isaac  Taylor  not  only  admits,  but  proves  at  length,  the  "  universality  " 
of  the  distinctive  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  "  Romish"  and  Greek  Churches 
even  in  the  fourth  century.  "  Scarcely  a  writer,  if  there  be  one,"  he  says,  "of 
the  Nicene  Church — Eastern  or  Western — would  withhold  his  contributions  to 
the  mass  [of  evidence  producible]  :  and  alas  !  what  a  volume  would  Augustine 
alone  furnish  !"  (Ancient  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  213). 

1  This  is  proved  very  fully  and  elaborately  in  Marshall's  great  work — Chris- 
tian Missions,  their  Agents,  their  Method,  and  their  Results  (2  vols.,  2d  edit., 
Longmans  &  Co.) — in  which  hundreds  of  testimonies  are  collected  from  Protestant 
authors,  "of  all  classes  and  creeds — English  and  American,  German  and  French, 
Swedish  and  Dutch  ;  historians  and  naturalists,  civil  and  military  officials,  tourists 
and  merchants,  chaplains  and  missionaries " — a  host  of  careful  and  accurate 
observers,  who,  as  Mr.  M.  remarks,  may  be  regarded  as  u  witnesses  employed  by 
Divine  Providence,  without  their  knowledge  or  concurrence,  to  detect  and  expose 
to  the  world  a  fact  which  the  eager  passions  and  prejudices  of  men  would  other- 
wise combine  to  conceal."  By  the  acknowledgments  made  by  them  stand  clearly 
revealed,  on  the  one  hand,  the  utter  and  universal  failure  of  Protestant  missions 
in  all  parts  of  the  world,  notwithstanding  the  incredibly  large  sums  that,  during 
the  present  century,  have  been  annually  expended  upon  them  ;  and,  on  the  other, 
the  marvellous  results  which,  during  the  last  three  centuries  and  a  half,  as  in  all 
former  ages,  have  everywhere  attended  the  labours  of  the  Catholic  missionaries, 
and  this  generally  under  circumstances  the  most  discouraging  and  disadvantageous 
from  a  worldly  point  of  view. 

Reviewing  this  work  of  Marshall's,  the  North  British  Review,  edited  by 
Dr.  Hanna,  a  well-known  Presbyterian  divine,  said  : — 

"  During  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  Romish  Church  girded  the 
globe  with  her  missions,  planting  the  Cross  from  beyond  the  Wall  of  China  to  the 
Peruvian  Cordilleras.     Nor  is  it  to  be  denied  that  her  missionaries  in  those  J 
were  men  abounding  in  Christian  heroism  and  sacrifices.     Of  monetary  mm 
her  disposal,  she  had  not  so  much  as  any  one  of  our  Protestant  societies.     But  she 


(  «  ) 

and  so  far  from  the  professors  of  Protestantism  presenting, 
either  at  home  amongst  themselves,  or  to  the  heathen  to 
whom  they  send  missionaries  abroad,  a  spectacle  of  RELI- 
GIOUS Unity—"  One  Fold,"  "One  Body,"  "  One  Faith," 

had,  what,  alas  !  we  so  often  fail  to  get,  abundance  of  large-hearted  men,  ready  to 
do  and  suffer  everything  for  the  faith."  And  again  : — "  This  interesting  inquiry," 
as  to  the  wonderful  success  of  the  Catholic,  as  contrasted  with  the  signal  failure 
of  the  Protestant  missions,  "  is  one  the  solution  of  which  calls  for  deeper  thought 
and  greater  fairness  than  polemical  divines  have  yet  allowed  it ;  for  the  student  of 
history  will  not  be  satisfied  without  some  theory  or  law  adequate,  to  account  for  the 

UNDENIABLE  FACT  THAT  HITHERTO  THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AMONGST 
THE  HEATHEN  HAS  CHIEFLY  BEEN  CARRIED  ON  BY  ROMANISM,  AND  ONLY  IN  A 
SLIGHT  MANNER  AS  YET  BY  A  CONSISTENT  AND  SCRIPTURAL  PROTESTANTISM  " 
{North  British  Review,  May  1864,  p.  433). 

With  Archdeacon  Paley's  reflections  on  the  "  little  progress  "  and  "  inconsider- 
able effect  "  of  Protestant  missions,  up  to  the  time  when  he  wrote  his  Evidences 
of  Christianity  (see  part  ii.  ch.  ix.  sect.  3),  it  is  instructive  to  contrast  the  account 
given  by  another  Protestant,  the  German  historian  Ranke,  of  the  wonderful 
success  of  the  Catholic  missions  about  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  centuries  : — 

"  In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,"  he  says,  "we  find  the  proud 
fabric  of  the  Catholic  Church  completely  erected  in  South  America.  It  pos- 
sessed five  archbishoprics,  twenty-seven  bishoprics,  four  hundred  monasteries, 
with  parish  churches  and  '  doctrinas '  innumerable.  •  Magnificent  cathedrals  had 
been  reared,  the  most  gorgeous  of  all,  perhaps,  being  that  of  Los  Angeles.  The 
Jesuits  taught  grammar  and  the  liberal  arts  ;  they  had  also  a  theological  seminary 
attached  to  their  college  of  San  Ildefonso  in  Mexico.  In  the  universities  of  Mexico 
and  Lima  all  the  branches  of  theology  were  studied.  .  .  .  Christianity  was,  mean- 
while, in  course  of  gradual  and  regular  diffusion  throughout  South  America,  the 
mendicant  Orders  being  more  particularly  active.  The  conquests  had  become 
changed  into  a  seat  of  missions,  and  the  missions  were  rapidly  proclaiming  civili- 
sation." .   .  . 

"  A  similar  process  was  at  the  same  time  in  action  through  East  India,  so  far  as 
the  rule  of  the  Portuguese  extended.  Catholicism  obtained  a  central  position  of 
great  value  in  Goa.  Thousands  were  converted  every  year  ;  even  as  early  as  1565, 
300,000  of  these  newly-made  Christians  were  computed  to  be  in  and  around  Goa, 
in  the  mountains  of  Cochin,  and  at  Cape  Comorin.  .  .  .  In  the  year  1609,  Father 
Nobili  had  already  converted  seventy  Brahmins?'  .  .  . 

"  The  labours  undertaken  at  the  same  time  in  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Akbar 
were  no  less  remarkable.  ...  In  the  year  1599,  Christmas  was  celebrated  at 
Lahore  with  the  utmost  solemnity.  .  .  .  The  Christians  made  great  progress. 
After  the  death  of  Akbar,  three  princes  of  the  blood-royal  were  solemnly 
baptized.  .  .  .  Christianity  seemed  gradually  to  acquire  a  position  of  fixed  char- 
acter, although  with  certain  vicissitudes.  .  .  .  In  1 621  a  college  was  founded  in 
Agra  and  a  station  was  established  at  Patna.  In  1624  there  were  hopes  that 
the  Emperor  Jehanguire  would  himself  become  a  convert."  .  .  . 

M  The  Jesuits  had  made  their  way  in  China  at  the  same  period.  ...  In  16 11 
the  first  church  in  Nankin  was  consecrated,  and  in  1616  Christian  churches   are 


(       «       ) 

&c. — it  is  but  too  notorious  that  their  profound  religious 
discords  and  dissensions — all  arising  from  that  first  and  funda- 
mental principle  of  their  religion,  "  THE  Liberty  OF  Private 
JUDGMENT,"  and  resulting  in  the  formation  of  innumerable 
Sects,1  hopelessly  divided  against  one  another  in  Faith  and 
Communion — have  been,  almost  from  the  first  year  of  its 
existence,   and  in    every   country  where    Protestantism  has 

described  as  existing  in  five  different  provinces  of  the  empire.  ...  There  passed 
no  year  that  they  did  not  convert  thousands,  while  those  who  opposed  them 
gradually  became  extinct."  .  .  . 

"  In  the  year  1577,  300,000  Christians  were  computed  to  have  received  baptism 
in  Japan.  Father  Velignano,  who  died  in  1606,  .  .  .  was  himself  the  founder 
of  three  hundred  churches,  and  thirty  houses  for  Jesuits  in  Japan.  .  .  .  After  the 
year  1612,  they  were  subjected  to  fearful  persecutions.  But  they  maintained  their 
ground  with  great  steadiness.  Their  proselytes  invoked  the  death  of  the  martyr, 
and  they  had  established  a  fraternity  of  martyrs,  the  members  of  which  mutually 
encouraged  each  other  to  the  endurance  of  every  possible  infliction  :  they  dis- 
tinguished those  years  as  the  JEra  Marlyrum.  But  despite  the  increasing  violence 
of  the  persecutions,  their  historians  affirm  that  even  at  that  dangerous  period  new 
converts  were  continually  added  to  their  numbers.  They  give  the  exact  amount 
of  239,339  as  that  of  the  converts  to  Christianity  among  the  Japanese  from  1603 
to  1622."  .   .  . 

"  In  all  these  countries  .  .  .  the  Jesuits  made  progress  beyond  all  that  they  could 
have  hoped  for,  and  succeeded  in  conquering,  at  least  partially,  the  resistance  of 
the  national  forms  of  religion  that  were  paramount  in  the  East  "  (Ranke's  Hist, 
of  the  Popes,  Bohn's  edit.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  228-235). 

Lord  Macaulay  thus  contrasts  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  Churches  during 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  : — 

"  As  the  Catholics  in  zeal  and  union  had  a  great  advantage  over  the  Protestants, 
so  had  they  also  an  infinitely  superior  organisation.  In  truth,  Protestantism  1  or 
AGGRESSIVE  PURPOSES  HAD  NO  organisation  at  ALL.  The  Reformed  Churches 
were  mere  national  Churches.  The  Church  of  England  existed  for  England  alone. 
It  was  an  institution  as  purely  local  as  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  was 
utterly  without  any  machinery  for  foreign  operations.  The  Church  of  Scotland  in 
like  manner  existed  for  Scotland  alone.  The  operations  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  took  in  the  whole  world"  {Essays,  vol. 
iii.  p.  236). 

During  the  present  century,  as  already  observed,  Protestants  have  expended 
annually  enormous  sums  on  u  Missions  to  the  Heathen  ;  "  but,  as  regards  n 
the  Christian  Remembrancer  declared  in  1859,  that  "we  should  not  allow  a 
few  isolated  instances  of  success  here  and  there  to  blind  us  to  what  we  must  call,  to 
speak  plainly,  the  failure  of  missionary  efforts  in  modern  times"  {Christ.  Kcmcml  >:, 
vol.  37,  p.  69) ;  and  similar  admissions  are  made  by  later  Protestant  writers. 
Marshall's  Christ.  Miss,  passim). 

1  Staphylus  and  Cardinal  IIosius  reckoned  270  Sects  of  Protestants  before 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Hallam  reckons  "  the  growing dissensions and 
virulence  of  the  Protestants"  among  the  causes  which  powerfully  tended  to  make 


(     *3     ) 

shown  itself,  an  opprobrium  and  disgrace  to  the  very  name 
of  Christianity.1 

V.  Hence  it  inevitably  follows,  that  no  Protestant  Sect  or 
conglomeration  of  Sects  can  constitute  or  represent  that 
One,  True,  and  Original  Church,  founded  by  Christ  for  the 
propagation  and  extension  of  His  One  true  Faith  and  Religion 
throughout  the  whole  world,  and  for  the  preservation  of  that 
same  Faith  and  Religion  throughout  all  ages ;  and  to  which, 
in  the  performance  and  execution  of  the  commission  assigned 
to  it,  He  had  guaranteed  the  most  perfect  success,  and  exemp- 
tion from  all  liability  to  failure  or  error,  by  the  promise  of 
His  own  perpetual  and  efficacious  assistance,  and  the  infal- 
lible guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth : — 

"  GO,  TEACH  ALL  NATIONS  ;  AND  LO !  I  AM  WITH  YOU 
ALWAYS,  EVEN  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD."  2 

the  learned  Grotius  seek  refuge  in  the  Catholic  Communion  {Hist,  of  Litera- 
ture, vol.  ii.  p.  409,  ed.  i860).  "  Lutherans  and  Calvinists,"  says  Ranke,  "stood 
opposed  to  each  other  with  a  feeling  of  mutual  hatred  ;  .  .  .  Episcopalians  and 
Puritans,  Arminians  and  Gomarists,  attacked  each  other  with  the  fiercest  hate  " 
{Hist,  of  the  Popes,  B.  vii.  ch.  ii.  sect.  i). 

1  See  Balmez's  European  Civilisation — Catholicism  and  Protestantism  Com- 
pared ; — especially  chap.  xlv.  : — "  The  universal  progress  of  Christianity  impeded 
by  Protestantism  ;  "  also  Marshall's  Christian  Missions,  passim. 

2  "ALWAYS,  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD," — £'«s  rijs  a-vvreXeias  rod  al&vos. 
This  phrase  occurs  elsewhere  in  the  Gospels  {Matt.  xiii.  39, 40,  49,  xxiv.  3,  &c),  and, 
as  Bloomfield  says,  is  "always  employed  in  this  sense,  of  the  world's  end." 

With  regard  to  the  pronoun  '''•you  "  ("lo  !  I  am  with  you,"  &c),  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  observe,  that  the  use  of  it  no  more  limits  either  the  Commission  or 
the  Promise  to  the  Apostles  personally,  than  did  the  use  of  the  pronoun  "we"  in 
1  Cor.  xv.  51,  1  Thess.  iv.  17,  imply  that  St.  Paul,  and  those  to  whom  he  was 
writing,  would  themselves  be  living  on  the  earth  until  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
Christ  addressed  the  Apostles  as  a  Body  Corporate  ;  and,  according  to  the  com- 
mon saying,  "a  Body  Corporate  never  dies."  The  "  Light  OF  THE  World" 
was  not  to  be  diminished  through  the  death  or  defection  of  particular  members  of 
the  Teaching  Body ;  and  it  should  be  observed,  that  the  promise  given  to  this 
latter,  of  Christ's  perpetual  presence  and  assistance  in  the  execution  of  the  Com- 
mission assigned  to  it,  was  given  to  it — not  for  its  own  sake  or  benefit,  but — for 
the  good  of  those  {"all  nations")  whom  it  was  to  "  disciple,"  and  as  a  perpetual 
provision  and  security  for  their  being  unerringly  instructed  in  "all  things  what- 
soever He  had  commanded." 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  in  sending  "the  eleven  Apostles"  to  execute  His 
commission,  Christ  sent  the  whole  Body  of  Pastors,  who  should  derive  their  mission 
from  Himself,  through  the  Apostles  and  their  legitimate  Successors,  to  the  end  of 
time.  His  words,  therefore,  may  be  thus  paraphrased  :  In  commanding  you  (My 
Apostles),  I  command  the  whole  Body  of  Pastors  succeeding  you,  to  "teach  all 


(     =4     ) 

"The  Spirit  of  Truth  shall  abide  with  you  for 
ever  :  He  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth." 

"  Not  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who  shall 
believe  on  Me  through  their  word  :  THAT  THEY  ALL  MAY 
be  One,  in  order  that  the  world  may  believe  that 
Thou  hast  sent  Me." 

VI.  On  the  other  hand,  it  follows  no  less  certainly,  that 
that  Church  which  alone  has  had  a  Visible  Existence  in  all 

nations"  In  commanding  you,  I  command  them,  to  *' baptize  all  nations."  In 
promising  to  be  with  you,  I  promise  to  be  with  them  in  the  execution  of  My  com- 
mission, and  in  the  work  of  the  ministry.  "  And  behold  I  am  with  you  always ', 
even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

Christ  intended  His  Church  to  be  propagated  in  all  nations,  and  to  exist  in 
ALL  ages  ;  and  for  the  securing  of  this  end,  "  He  ordained  that  there  should  be  a 
race  and  succession  of  Apostolic  Ministers,  teaching  His  Doctrines,  administering 
His  Sacraments,  and  enforcing  the  observance  of  His  Precepts,  in  all  nations  and 
ages  ;  for  it  was  by  the  introduction  of  the  Doctrines  of  Christ,  of  the  Sacra- 
ments of  Christ,  and  of  the  Precepts  and  Institutions  of  Christ,  into  all 
nations,  that  THE  Church  of  Christ  was  to  be  established  in  all  nations,  by  the 
ministry  of  those  to  whom  He  gave  this  commission  "  (Poynter). 

The  promise,  "  I  am  with  you  always"  is  equivalent  to  that  in  John  xiv.  16, 
and  xvi.  12  :  M  The  Spirit  of  Truth  shall  abide  with  you  for  ever ;  He  shall  guide 
you  into  all  truth ;"  and  its  force  becomes  more  apparent  by  a  comparison  with 
other  passages  in  Scripture,  where,  after  giving  a  commission  of  peculiar  diffi- 
culty to  man,  God  adds  the  promise,  " /  will  be  with  you"  as  a  guarantee  and 
security  of  the  possibility  and  certainty  of  its  fulfilment.  See  especially  Gen.  xxxi. 
3,  xlvi.  3,  4 ;  Exod.  iii.  II,  12  ;  Jer.  i.  17,  19,  See  also  Gen.  xxvi.  3,  24;  Dent. 
xxxi.  23  ;  Josh.  i.  5,  9,  iii.  7  ;  Judges  vi.  15, 16  ;  2  Kings  vn.  9  ;  Isai.  xli.  10,  xliii. 
2,  5  ;  Jer.  xv.  20,  xlii.  11  ;  Acts  xviii.  9,  10;  &c.  (Compare  Gen.  xxi.  22,  xxviii. 
20,  xxxix.  2,  3,  21,  23;  Deut.  ii.  7,  xxxi.  8;  Josh.  xiv.  12  ;  I  Kings  iii.  19,  x.  7  ; 
2  Kings  v.  10 ;  I  Chron.  xxviii.  20  ;  Ps.  xxiii.  4,  5  ;  Jer.  xx.  11  ;  Luke\.  28,  66 ; 
John  iii.  2,  viii.  29 ;  Acts  x.  38,  xi.  21  ;  &c.)  From  these  passages  it  appears  that 
when  a  promise  or  assurance  is  given  that  God  "would be  with  "  any  person,  it  is 
always  signified  that  God  so  protected  and  aided  that  person  by  His  special  provi- 
dence, that  whatsoever  he  undertook  should  infallibly  succeed  ;  but  this  conclusion  is 
of  course  most  obvious  when — as  in  the  first  passages  referred  to — the  promise  is 
given  with  special  reference  to  the  difficulty  of  some  undertaking,  or  in  connection 
with  a  Commission  (such  as  that  in  Matt,  xxviii.)  incapable  of  accomplishment  by 
any  merely  human  means. 

When,  therefore,  our  Lord  promised  to  "beivith"  the  Teaching  Body,  in  the 
execution  of  the  Commission  assigned  to  it,  "always  to  the  end  of the  world"  that 
promise  implied,  and  was  a  guarantee,  1st,  that  the  Teaching  Body  should  exist 
indefeclibly  to  the  end  of  the  world  ;  and  idly,  that  throughout  the  whole  cpurse  of 
its  existence  it  should  be  divinely  guarded  and  assisted  in  fulfilling  the  Commission 
given  to  it,  viz.,  in  instructing  the  nations  in  "all  things  whatsoever  Christ  has 
commanded  ;"  in  other  words,  that  it  should  be  their  infallible  Guide  and 
Teacher. 


(    25    ) 

ages  from  the  time  of  Christ,  which  can  "  unroll  the  cata- 
logue of  her  Bishops "  (TERTULLIAN,  De  Prescript.  Hceret, 
c.  32),  and  prove  their  continuous  succession  from  the  Apostles 
of  Christ;  which  has  fulfilled,  or  been  always  engaged  in 
fulfilling,  the  Commission  which  He  gave  to  her,  by  "  dis- 
cipling"  and  receiving  into  her  communion  by  Baptism  "all 
the  nations"  of  the  earth; — that  Church  whose  exhibition 
of  perfect  and  supernatural  Unity  did  lead  an  unbelieving 
"world"  to  recognise  the  Divine  Mission  of  her  Founder; 
and  which  alone  possesses — and  alone  claims  to  possess — that 
Divinely-established  TEACHING  AUTHORITY,  by  means  of 
which  that  Unity  was  and  is  secured  ; — it  follows,  I  say,  that 
that  Church  must  be  the  alone  True  and  Original  One,  which 
He  Himself  founded,  and  to  which  the  Promises  were  made. 

VII.  But,  as  is  most  clearly  demonstrable,  it  is  of  THE 
Roman  Catholic  Church,1  and  of  her  alone,  that  all  this 
can  be  truly  said. 

She  alone  has  "  discipled  and  baptized  "  all  those  nations 
of  the  world  which  have  ever  yet  received  the  Christian 
Faith,  including  all  those  which  now  profess  Protestantism, 
and  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  apostatised  from  that 
faith  to  which  they  had  originally  been  converted  from  their 
heathenism,2  and  that  Church  by  which,  and  into  which,  they 

1  By  the  term  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  meant  the  Catholic  Church  in  com- 
munion with  the  See  of  Rome.  St.  Peter's  first  See  was  that  of  Antioch,  where 
"the  disciples  were  first  called  Christians  "  {Acts  xi.  26)  ;  but  the  Primatial  Chair 
was  subsequently  transferred  by  him  to  the  Imperial  City,  which  thus,  as  St.  Leo 
the  Great  remarks,  became  the  Head  of  the  world  in  a  spiritual  sense — "ruling 
more  widely  by  divine  religion  than  by  earthly  empire  "  (Serm.  81).  From  an 
early  date  the  Faith  of  the  Roman  Church  was  "renowned  in  all  the  world" 
(Rom.  i.  8,  xvi.  19,  20)  ;  and,  as  the  French  sceptic  M.  Renan  remarks,  it  was 
through  the  Papacy  that  the  Christian  Church  really  became  Catholic: — "  The 
Pope  of  Rome"  he  says,  "has  made  Christianity  the  religion  of  the  world" 
(Hibbert  Lectures,  1880,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  122). 

2  Dean  Milman  says  : — "  All  these  conquests  of  Christianity  were,  in  a  certain 
sense,  the  conquests  of  the  Roman  See.  .  .  .  Reverence  for  Rome  penetrated  with 
the  Gospel  to  the  remotest  parts.  Germany  was  converted  to  Latin  Christianity. 
Rome  was  the  source,  the  centre,  the  regulating  authority  recognised  by  the 
English  apostles  of  the  Teutons.  The  clergy  were  constantly  visiting  Rome  as  the 
religious  capital  of  the  world,  .  .  .  and  bishops  front  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
Empire,  and  of  regions  never  penetrated  by  the  Roman  arms,  looked  to  Rome  as  the 
parent  of  their  faith — if  not  to  an  infallible,  at  least  to  the  highest  authority  in 


(     26     ) 

had  been  baptized.  She  alone  has  been  in  all  ages  "  the 
Light  of  the  world"  " a  City  set  on  a  hill,  that  could  not  be 
hid;  "  SHE  ALONE  "the  Pillar  and  Foundation  of  the  Truth," 
rendering  it  conspicuous,  and  the  knowledge  of  it  attainable 
to  all  mankind  ;  SHE  ALONE  that  Heavenly  Kingdom,  the 

Christendom  "  (B.  iv.  ch.  vi.  vol.  ii.  p.  307) ;  "  The  Metropolis  of  Christianity  " 
{lb.  ch.  v.  p.  299). 

And  again : — "  With  all  the  Teutonic  part  of  Latin  Christendom,  the  belief  in 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  coeval  with  their  Christianity ;  it  was  an  article  of 
their  original  creed  as  much  as  the  Redemption  ;  their  apostles  were  commissioned 
by  the  Pope;  to  him  they  humbly  looked  for  instruction  and  encouragement, 
even  almost  for  permission  to  advance  upon  their  sacred  adventure.  Augustine, 
Boniface,  Ebbo,  Anschar,  had  been  papal  missionaries"  (B.  vii.  ch.  i.  vol.  iv. 
p.  4). 

Venerable  Bede,  speaking  of  the  conversion  of  our  own  country  by  Augus- 
tine and  his  monks,  sent  by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  says  : — "  And  whereas  he 
[Pope  Gregory]  bore  the  Pontifical  power  over  all  the  world,  and  was  placed  over 
the  Churches  already  reduced  to  the  faith  of  truth,  he  made  our  nation,  till  then 
given  up  to  idols,  the  Church  of  Christ''''  {Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.  c.  1).  Compare 
Dean  Milman's  chapter  on  the  Conversion  of  England  (B.  iv.  ch.  iii.  vol.  ii.  p. 
224  seq.) ;  Neander  (vol.  v.  p.  13  seq.) ;  and  Guizot  {Hist.  of\European 
Civilisation,  Bohn's  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  ii.  p.  173,  174).  Milman  further  remark?, 
that  "a  native  clergy  seems  to  have  grown  up  more  rapidly  in  Britain  than  in 
any  other  of  the  Teutonic  kingdoms.  But  they  zuere  in  general  the  admiring 
pupils  of  the  Roman  clergy.  To  them  Rome  was  the  centre  and  source  of  the 
faith,"  &c.  {loc.  cit.  p.  249). 

Ranke,  the  German  Protestant  historian,  also  says,  that  "  together  with  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  a  veneration  for  Rome  and  for  the  Holy  See,  such  as 
had  never  before  existed  in  any  nation,  found  place  among  the  Germanic  Britons  " 
{Hist,  of  the  Popes,  Bohn's  edit.,  vol.  i.  p.  11). 

On  St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany,  and  the  conversion  of  that  country  to 
the  faith  of  Rome,  see  Neander  (vol.  v.  pp.  62,  65,  66,  69,  75,  87,  88,  98,  &c), 
and  Milman  (B.  iv.  ch.  v.  vol.  ii.  p.  295  seq.).  Neander  gives  Boniface's  oath 
of  obedience  to  the  Pope  {loc.  cit.  p.  66). 

Ranke  says: — "Boniface,  the  apostle  of  the  Germans,  was  an  Anglo-Saxon  ; 
this  missionary,  largely  sharing  in  the  veneration  professed  by  his  nation  for  St. 
Peter  and  his  successors,  had  from  the  beginning  voluntarily  pledged  himself  to 
abide  faithfully  by  all  the  regulations  of  the  Roman  See:  to  this  promise  he  most 
religiously  adhered.  On  all  the  German  Churches  founded  by  him  was  imposed 
an  extraordinary  obligation  to  obedience.  Every  Bishop  was  required  expressly 
to  promise  that  his  whole  life  should  be  passed  in  unlimited  obedience  to  the 
Romish  Church,  to  St.  Peter  and  his  representatives"  {op.  cit.  p.  12). 

M.  Guizot  says  that  "for  him  [Boniface]  Rome  is  the  centre,  the  Pope  is  the 
chief  of  Christianity  "  {op.  cit.  vol.  ii.  p.  175).  He  gives  his  oath  of  submission 
to  the  Pope,  and  his  account  of  the  first  German  Council,  held  under  his  presi- 
dency in  742,  and  adds  : — "  Of  a  surety,  it  is  impossible  more  formally  to  submit 
the  new  Church,  the  new  Christian  nations,  to  the  Papal  power"  {lb.  p.  177). 

Milman,  after  describing  his^" wonderful  successes,"  says: — "Boniface  had 


(     27     ) 

"mustard-seed"  of  the  Parable,  which,  from  a  very  small 
germ,  quickly  grew  and  increased  until  it  "became  a  great 
tree"  overshadowing  the  earth,  and  giving  shelter  and  protec- 
tion to  "  the  fowls  of  the  air ; "  SHE  ALONE  the  "  net"  which, 
cast  into  the  sea  of  the  world,  has  "gathered  of  every  kind ;  " 
SHE  ALONE  "  the  leaven" l  which,  " hid  in  the  three  measures 
of  meal"  (the  three  parts,  then  known,  of  the  world),  has 
effected  a  change  and  spiritual  revolution  throughout  the 
earth  ;  and  will  not  cease  to  do  so  "  until  the  whole  be  leavened" 
i.e.,  until  the  Faith  of  Christ  and  her  Spiritual  Dominion  shall 
have  been  propagated  and  extended  throughout  every  part 
and  corner  of  the  world.2 

won  a  new  empire  to  Christianity,  and  was  placed  over  it  as  spiritual  sovereign 
by  the  respectful  gratitude  of  the  Pope.  He  received  the  pall  of  a  Metropolitan, 
and  was  empowered  as  primate  to  erect  bishoprics  throughout  Germany.  Again 
he  visited  Rome,  and  was  invested  by  Gregory  III.,  the  new  Pope,  with  full 
powers  as  representative  of  the  Apostolic  See  "  {Joe.  cit.  p.  300). 

For  an  account  of  the  conversion  to  Christianity  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway, 
and  other  Northern  countries  (now  Protestant),  by  missionaries  sent  by  the  Popes, 
in  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  Protestant  reader  can  refer  to 
Neander  (vol.  v.  pp.  373-477),  or  Dean  Joseph  Milner's  Church  History 
(cent.  viii.  ch.  v.,  cent.  ix.  ch.  v.  &c). 

1  Regarding  the  prophetic  significance  of  these  three  parables— of  the  mustard' 
seed,  the  net,  and  the  leaven — see  the  notes  from  Trench  On  the  Parables  {sup. 
pp.  6,  7) ;  also  Greswell  On  the  Parables  (vol.  ii.  pp.  175  sea.,  259,  261,  265). 

Several  Protestant  writers,  despairing  of  finding  any  non- Catholic  Church  to 
which  these  parables  could  be  applied,  have  actually  dared  to  maintain  that  they 
were  prophetic  of  the  universality  of  the  kingdom  of  Antichrist  or  of  Satan,  and 
of  the  universal  corruption  of  Christianity,  through  the  spread  of  "Popery"  and 
the  "  dominion  of  a  proud  world-hierarchy  ; "  thus  exactly  fulfilling  our  Lord's 
prediction  : — "  If  'they  have  called  the  Master  of  the  house  Beelzebub,  much  ?nore 
them  of  His  household"  {Matt.  x.  25,  and  xii.  24-28).  Dr.  Trench  speaks  of  the 
holders  of  this  opinion  as  being  "little  bands  of  modern  Separatists,  whose  motive 
of  course  is  obvious"  (p.  112) ;  yet  he  takes  the  trouble  to  refute  them  at  some 
length. 

2  For  copious  information  (chiefly  in  the  form  of  Protestant  testimonies)  regard- 
ing Catholic  Missions  in  modern  times,  the  reader  should  consult  Mr.  Marshall's 
work  above  mentioned.  The  Anglican  Church  Times  of  January  23,  1880, 
says  : — "  Missions  to  the  heathen  have  always  been  a  strong  point  in  the  Roman 
Church.  Her  organisation  for  these  enterprises  is  on  so  vast  and  complete  a 
scale  compared  with  any  other  branch  of  the  Church  ;  the  training  of  her  ministers 
for  distant  spheres  of  labour  is  so  directly  pointed  to  the  end  to  be  attained  ;  their 
zeal  and  self-sacrifice  causing  them  to  exhibit  the  Church  before  the  heathen  as  a 
body  called  to  suffer  for  Christ's  sake  ;  their  entire  freedom  from  earthly  ties  ;  the 
implicit  and  unquestioning  obedience  which  is  required  of  them  to  the  powers 
above  them  ;  and  last,  and  not  least,  the  peculiar  knack  which  Rome  has  with 


(     **     ) 

This  Catholic  Church — of  which  the  See  of  Peter  was 
ever  the  acknowledged  Centre  and  Head1 — ALONE  was2  (as 

few  exceptions  exercised,  of  putting  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  have  all 
conduced  to  attract  and  win  the  sympathies  of  heathen  hearts.  And  while  we 
acknowledge  and  admire  the  earnest  zeal,  and.  self-devotion,  and  perseverance 
which  have  characterised  the  missionaries  themselves,  we  may  recognise  also  a 
spirit  of  discretion  in  much  of  the  instrumentality  that  is  provided  ;  the  numerous 
bodies  sent  out  together,  the  establishment  of  sanctuaries  and  religious  houses  for 
the  reception  of  catechumens  and  the  education  of  orphans  and  native  children, 
the  preparation  of  elementary  forms  of  instruction,  such  as  those  of  Francis 
Xavier,  for  the  use  of  the  catechists  in  India,  the  community  of  living  and 
austerity  of  habits  invariably  adopted,  have  doubtless  contributed  to  the  success 
which,  however  much  exaggerated,  in  many  cases,  and  however  ephemeral  in 
others,  has  on  the  whole  attended  the  missionary  efforts  of  the  Roman  Communion 
in  all  parts  of  the  globe." 

1  See  Cathedra  Petri,  2d  ed.,  Burns  &  Oates. 

2  "  The  phrase  '  Catholic  Church,'  "  says  M.  Renan,  "  speaking  of  the  second 
century,  "breaks  upon  us  from  all  sides  at  once,  as  the  name  of  the  great 
COMMUNION  WHICH  IS  DESTINED  THENCEFORTH  TO  COME  DOWN  THE  AGES  IN 
unbroken  unity"  {Hibbert  Lectures,  1880,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  164). 

"The  Clergy,"  says  Dean  MiLMAN,  "including  the  Monks  and  Friars,  were 
one  throughout  Latin  Christendom ;  and  through  them,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
Latin  Church  was  ONE.  .  .  .  The  Pope's  awful  powers  held  in  check  the  constant 
inevitable  tendency  to  rebellion  and.  contumacy,  which  was  usually  that  of  indi- 
vidual Prelates  or  small  factions.   ...  On  the  whole,  the  Order  of  the  Clergy  was 

ONE    FROM   THE    UTMOST   EAST   TO   THE   FARTHER   WEST,    FROM   THE   NORTH 

to  the  South  "  {Hist,  of  Lat.  Christ,  B.  xiv.  ch.  i.  vol.  ix.  pp.  25,  27).  And 
again  : — "  Latin  Christendom,  or  rather  universal  Christendom,  was  one  (except- 
ing those  who  were  self-outlawed,  or  outlawed  by  the  dominant  authority  from 
the  Christian  Monarchy),  not  only  in  the  organisation  of  the  all-ruling  Hierarchy, 
and  the  admission  of  Monkhood  ;  it  was  one  in  the  great  system  of  Belief. 
.  .  .  The  whole  world  was  one  in  the  popular  religion  "  {lb.  ch.  ii.  pp.  53, 
54).  M.  Guizot,  also,  remarks  that  this  great  fact  of  "the  unity  of  the  Church, 
the  unity  of  the  Christian' society,  despite  all  the  diversities  of  time,  place, 
domination,  language,  or  origin,"  is  one  "which  dominates  over  all,  which  char- 
acterises the  Christian  Church  in  general,  and  has,  as  it  were,  decided  her  destiny." 
"  This,"  he  adds,  "  is  a  great  and  glorious  fact,  and  one  which,  from  the  fifth  to 
the  thirteenth  century,  has  rendered  immense  services  to  humanity.  The  mere 
fact  of  the  unity  of  the  Church  maintained  some  tie  between  countries  and  nations 
that  everything  else  tended  to  separate  ;  under  its  influence,  some  general  notions, 
some  sentiments  of  a  vast  sympathy  continued  to  be  developed  ;  and  from  the 
very  heart  of  the  most  frightful  political  confusion  that  the  world  has  ever  known 
arose,  perhaps,  the  most  extensive  and  the  purest  idea  that  has  ever  rallied  man- 
kind— the  idea  of  spiritual  society;  for  that  is  the  philosophical  name  of  the 
Church,  the  type  which  she  wished  to  realise"  {Hist,  of  European  Civilisa 
Bohn's  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  19,  20). 

Protestants  often  ask  triumphantly— "  Where  was  the  Unity  of  the  Catholic 
Church  at  the  time  of  the  great  Papal  Schism  (a.d.  1 378-141 7),  during  which 
the  nations  of  Europe  were  divided  in  their  allegiance  to  three  contending  Popes  ?  " 


(     29     ) 

she  still  is  1),  the/'  One  Fold  wider  One  Shepherd" — that  great 
and  illustrious  Body  or  Society  of  Christians,  whose  exhibi- 
tion of  supernatural  and  majestic  Unity  struck  "the  World" 
with  awe  and  amazement,  causing  it  to  recognise  the  Divine 
Mission  of  her  Founder  and  Head, — so  that  "  the  kingdoms 

— To  which  objection  it  may  be  replied  : — 1st,  That  the  Church's  Unity  of  Faith, 
Public  Worship,  and  Sacraments,  remained  intact  during  that  whole  period  ;  idly, 
that  what  may  be  called  the  interregnum  in  the  Church,  caused  by  the  controversy 
regarding  the  validity  of  the  election  of  the  claimants  to  the  Papacy,  was  abnormal 
in  its  character  and  transient  in  its  effects;  and  that  the  Church  all  along  re- 
tained— and  ultimately  exercised — the  power  of  determining  who  was  or  should 
be  her  validly  elected  Head.  It  was  not  promised  to  the  Church  that  she  should 
not  be  assaulted  by  the  gates  of  hell  (the  Powers  of  Darkness),  but  that  she  should 
always  prove  victorious  against  them. 

1  Lord  Macaulay,  in  a  well-known  passage,  says : — "  The  Papacy  remains, 
not  in  decay,  not  a  mere  antique,  but  full  of  life  and  youthful  vigour.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  still  sending  forth  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the  world  mission- 
aries as  zealous  as  those  who  landed  in  Kent  with  Augustine,  and  still  confronting 
hostile  kings  with  the  same  spirit  with  which  she  confronted  Attila.  The 
number  of  her  children  is  greater  than  in  any  former  age.  .  .  .  She  saw  the 
commencement  of  all  the  Governments  and  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  that 
are  now  in  the  world  ;  and  we  feel  no  assurance  that  she  is  not  destined  to  see 
the  end  of  them  all.  She  was  great  and  respected  before  the  Saxon  had  set  foot 
on  Britain,  before  the  Frank  had  crossed  the  Rhine,  when  Grecian  eloquence  still 
flourished  in  Antioch,  when  idols  were  still  worshipped  in  the  temple  of  Mecca. 
And  she  may  still  exist  in  undiminished  vigour  when  some  traveller  from  New 
Zealand  shall,  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  solitude,  take  his  stand  on  a  broken  arch  of 
London  Bridge,  to  sketch  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's  "  {Essay  on  Ranke's  Lives  of  the 
Popes). 

As  farther  illustrating  and  corroborating  what  has  been  said  above,  regarding 
that  spectacle  of  Universality  and  of  majestic  Unity  which  the  Catholic 
Church  presents  to  the  world  at  large,  the  following  extracts  from  the  leading 
articles  and  special  correspondence  of  the  chief  English  journals,  at  the  time  of 
the  opening  of  the  CEcumenical  Council  of  the  Vatican,  may  perhaps  be  of  interest 
to  the  reader  : — 

Standard  (December  ioth,  1869)  :  — "  In  historic  importance,  in  traditional 
dignity,  in  the  splendour  of  the  associations  that  gather  round  its  name,  no 
Assembly  in  the  world,  past  or  present,  can  pretend  to  compare  with  the  great 
Parliament  of  the  Latin  Church.  The  unbroken  continuity  of  the  history  of  that 
Church,  its  undeniable  and  uninterrupted  descent  from  the  Church  founded  by 
the  Apostles,  renders  this  Council  ...  the  immediate  successor  and  representa- 
tive, in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  Council  can  rival  its  claims,  of  the  Council  of 
Nicsea,  if  not  of  the  Council  of  Jerusalem.  Nor  is  its  actual  power  and  conse- 
quence unworthy  of  its  traditional  heritage.  ...  It  is  the  representative  assembly, 
the  omnipotent  legislature  of  a  compact  and  coherent  body  of  Christians,  whose 
number  approaches  more  nearly  to  two  than  one  hundred  millions,"  &c. 

After  referring  to  the  attempts  made  by  the  enemies  of  the  Pope  and  of  the 
Church  to  hinder  the  assembling  of  the  Council,  the  special  correspondent 
(Standard,  Dec.  nth)  says  : — "Nevertheless,  all  has  been  in  vain;  and  the 
dispassionate  observer  is   compelled  to  confess  that  the  spectacle  of  so  many 


(     30     ) 

of  this  zvorld  became  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ'"  (Rev.  xi.  15).  She  ALONE  possesses — and  alone 
claims  to  possess — that  supreme  and  unerring  Teaching 
Authority,  without  which  no  such  Unity  could  be  guaranteed 
or   preserved.1     In — and   by — HER    ALONE   have   all   those 

hundreds  of  Bishops,  coming  from  the  farthest  quarters  of  the  earth  at  the  beck  of 
an  old  man,  powerless  in  all  but  spiritual  thunderbolts,  is  one  that,  occurring  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  especially  at  this  period  of  it,  is  calculated  to  strike 
the  believing  with  a  pious  admiration,  and  even  the  incredulous,  like  ourselves, 
with  irrepressible  astonishment." 

The  Daily  News  (Dec.  14th) :— "  It  must  be  admitted  that,  weak  as  is  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  no  other  Prince  could  have  assembled  such  a  body 
as  met  to-day  in  the  Council-hall  of  St.  Peter's,  and  no  other  could  have  provided 
them  with  such  a  magnificent  temple.  From  the  remotest  quarters  of  the  globe 
— from  a  land  that  was  but  just  heard  of  when  the  Council  of  Trent  sat,  from  a 
land  that  was  then  wholly  unknown, — from  Palestine  and  Syria,  the  cradles  of 
Christianity  ;  from  Persia,  from  China,  from  India,  from  Africa,  from  the  Western 
Isles,  as  well  as  from  the  countries  washed  by  the  Mediterranean,  men  of  various 
tongues  and  of  diverse  origin,  men  of  great  learning  and  of  great  age,  have  come 
together  to  this  famous  city,  in  obedience — voluntary  and  spiritual  obedience — 
to  the  Pastor  who  claims  to  be  the  Successor  of  Peter,  and  the  Vicegerent  of  God 
upon  earth." 

The  Times  (Dec.  16th)  : — "  Seven  hundred  Bishops,  more  or  less,  representing 
all  Christendom,  were  seen  gathered  round  one  altar  and  one  throne,  partaking  of 
the  same  Divine  Mystery,  and  rendering  homage,  by  turns,  to  the  same  spiritual 
authority  and  power.  As  they  put  on  their  mitres  or  took  them  off,  and  as  they 
came  to  the  steps  of  the  altar  or  the  foot  of  the  common  Spiritual  Father,  it  was 
IMPOSSIBLE  NOT  TO  FEEL  THE  UNITY  AND  THE  POWER  OF  THE  CHURCH  WHICH 
THEY  REPRESENTED." 

1  "  In  the  Catholic  Church,"  says  a  writer  in  the  Union  Review  (May 
1875),  "it  was  always  an  article  of  faith  that  our  Lord,  by  the  assistance  and 
guidance  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  preserved  the  whole  Church,  in  her  collective  capa- 
city, from  falling  into  error  in  her  dogmatic  teaching.  But  it  was  also  a  point  of 
belief,  which  may  be  traced  up  to  the  Apostolic  age,  that  in  the  administration  of 
this  teaching  authority,  the  See  of  St.  Peter  held  a  supreme  office  ;  that  it  was  the 
centre  of  ecclesiastical  operations,  if  we  may  use  such  a  term  ;  that  apart  from  it 
there  would  be  no  genuine  orthodoxy,  no  true  Catholicity;  and  that  in  all  the 
great  controversies  which  from  time  to  time  divided  the  Christian  world,  the  most 
crucial  test  of  truth  was  the  adherence  to  any  dogma  by  the  See  of  Peter." 

"Though  a  few  distinguished  voices  have  been  lifted  up  against  the  dogma 
of  Papal  Infallibility,  they  have  indeed  been,  and  continue  to  be,  few  and  far 
between.  We  believe  there  is  but  one  Bishop  out  of  the  whole  Romish 
I  lierarchy  who  is  not  now  inculcating  the  dogma,  and  that  solitary  one  does  not 
go  beyond  a  passive  resistance.  .  .  .  Rome,  under  the  guidance  of  Pius  IX.,  at 
least  knows  its  own  mind,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  perhaps  any  other 
influential  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  at  the  present  moment.  .  .  .  Were 
Pius  IX.  to  die  to-morrow,  he  would  leave  the  Roman  Church  far  more  powerful 
than  he  found  it,  and  endowed  with  a  far  higher  vitality  "  (Standard,  June 
19th,  1872). 


(     3i     ) 

Prophecies  been  fulfilled  that  were  uttered  regarding  the 
Church  of  Christ — the  Kingdom  of  the  Messias  ;  e.g., 
that  "  Kings  should  be  her  nursing  fathers,  and  queens  her 
nursing  mothers ;  they  sliould  bow  down  before  her  with  their 
face  toward  the  earth,  and  lick  up  the  dust  of  her  feet ;  * — that 
"  the  Gentiles  should  come  to  her  light,  and  kings  to  the  bright- 
ness of  her  rising  ;  .  .  .  her  gates  should  be  open  continually  ; 
they  should  not  be  shut  day  nor  night ;  that  men  might  bring 
unto  Jier  the  forces  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  their  kings  might 
be  brought:  for  the  nation  and  kingdom  that  would  not  serve 
her  should  perish  ;  "  —  that  "  no  weapon  formed  against  her 
sliould  prosper,  and  every  tongue  that  should  arise  in  judgment 
against  her  she  should  condemn  ;  " — that  God's  "  Spirit  that 
should  be  upon  her,  and  His  words  which  He  would  put  in  her 
mouth,  should  not  depart  out  of  her  mouth,  nor  out  of  tlie  mouth 
of  her  seed,  nor  out  of  the  mouth  of  her  seed's  seed,  from  hence- 
forth and  for  ever  ;" — that  "from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  even 
to  the  going  down  of  tlie  same,  God's  name  should  be  great 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  in  every  place  incense  should  be  offered 
to  His  name,  and  a  pure  offering;  " — that  the  Messias  should 
be  "for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  and  for  salvation  unto  the  ends 
of  the  earth  ;" — He  "should  have  the  Gentiles  for  His  inheri- 
tance, and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  His  possession  ; 
He  sliould  rule  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  unto  the 
ends  of  the  cartJi,  all  nations  falling  down  before  Him,  all 
nations  serving  Him  ;  " — and,  finally,  that,  in  this  Church  of 
the  Messias,  "  the  Lord  God  would  set  tip  a  Kingdom  which 
should  7iever  be  destroyed"  and  "  against  which  the  Gates  of 
Hell  should  never  prevail!' 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  ROMAN  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH — and  she  ALONE — is  the  One  true  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church  of  Christ, — the  Church  which  He  Himself 
founded,  and  with  which,  in  the  performance  of  her  great 
office  as  Teacher  of  the  nations,  He  Himself — "  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  and  the  Life" — promised  to  abide  li always,  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world ;  "  and,  consequently,  that  it  is  from  HER 
voice  and  teaching  alone  that  we  can  with  certainty  and 
security  learn  the  entire  Faith  and  body  of  Doctrines  which 
Me  has  revealed, — "all  things  whatsoever  He  has  commanded 
her  to  teach  to  all  nations? 


"The  universal  aptness  of  a  religious  system  for  all  stages  of  civilisation,  and 
for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  well  befits  its  claim  of  divine  origin.  She  is 
of  all  nations  and  of  all  times,  that  wonderful  Church  of  Rome. " — Kinglake's 
Eothen,  chap.  xi. 

"  Protestantism  was  the  work  of  man  ;  and  it  appears  in  no  other  light  even  in 
the  history  which  its  own  disciples  have  drawn  of  its  origin." — Schlegel's  Philo- 
sophy of  History,  Bonn's  7th  Eng.  edit.,  p.  411. 

"  Notwithstanding  all  his  attempts  to  deface  the  work  of  God,  man  cannot  blot 
out  the  eternal  characters  which  distinguish  truth  from  error."— Balmez,  Euro- 
pean Civilisation,  Protestantism  and  Catholicity  Compared,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  45. 


APPENDIX. 


Some  Testimonies'  of  Protestant  and  non-Christian  Historians  regarding 
the  beneficial  Action  and  Influence  of  the  Catholic  Church  during 
the  Early  and  Middle  Ages,  the  early  and  provide?itial  Develop- 
ment of  the  Papal  Po7c>er,  &c,  &*c. 

M.  Ernest  Renan,  the  well-known  French  savant  and  sceptic,  in  the 
Hibbert  Lectures,  delivered  in  London  in  1880,  speaks  as  follows  : — 

"The  origins  of  Christianity  form  the  most  heroic  episode  of  the 
history  of  humanity.  .  .  .  This  extraordinary  movement,  with  which  no 
other  can  be  compared,  came  out  of  the  heart  of  Judaism.  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  Judaism  alone  would  have  conquered  the  world.  For 
this  it  was  .  .  .  above  all  needful  that  the  new  movement  should  transfer 
itself  to  the  Greek  and  Latin  world,  and  there  awaiting  the  barbarians, 
should  become  as  it  were  a  leaven  in  the  midst  of  those  European  races 
by  means  of  which  humanity  accomplishes  its  destiny."  x  .  .  .  (pp.  8,  9). 

"In  order  that  Judea  might  make  a  religious  conquest  of  the  world,  it 
was  necessary  that  she  should  be  blotted  out  from  the  roll  of  nations.  .  .  . 
The  victory  of  Rome  was  complete.  .  .  .  The  national  existence  of  the 
Jewish  people  was  irretrievably  lost  ;  but  this  was  a  piece  of  good  fortune. 
The  true  glory  of  Judaism  was  the  Christianity  then  in  act  of  birth.  And 
for  Christianity,  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  Temple  was  an  advan- 
tage above  all  other.  .  .  .  The  Romans  thought  that  in  tearing  away  the 
root  they  were  at  the  same  time  tearing  away  the  sucker  ;  but  the  sucker 
had  already  become  a  tree,  with  an  independent  life  of  its  own"  (pp.  104, 
115,  116). 

After  showing  that  "  in  proportion  as  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  falls  the 
Church  of  Rome  rises,"  and  that  "  while  the  Pope  of  Jerusalem  would 
have  smothered  Christianity  at  the  end  of  a  century  or  two,  the  Pope  of 
Rome  has  made  it  the  religion  of  the  world"  (p.  122),  he  says  : — 

"The  truth  of  what  I  have  said  is  illustrated  in  a  very  important 
personage,  who  appears  to  have  been  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  Church 

1  M.  Renan's  remarks  furnish  a  remarkable  commentary  on  the  words  of  St. 
Paul  : — "  If  the  fall  of  them  [the  Jews]  be  the  riches  of  the  world,  and  the  dimi- 
nution of  them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles  ;  ...  if  the  casting  away  of  them  be  the 
reconciling  of  the  world"  &>c.  {Rom.  xi.  12,  15,  20). 

C 


(     34     ) 

in  the  last  years  of  the  first  century.  ...  I  mean  Clement  of  Rome.  .  .  . 
The  high  rank  which  he  held  in  the  purely  spiritual  hierarchy  of  the 
Church  of  his  times,  and  the  unequalled  credit  which  he  enjoyed,  are 
beyond  doubt.  His  approval  was  a  law  in  itself  (Pseudo-Hermas, 
vis.  ii.  4).  All  parties  claimed  his  leadership,  and  desired  to  shelter 
themselves  beneath  his  authority.  .  .  .  He  is  the  first  type  of  Pope  which 
Church  history  presents  to  us.  His  lofty  personality,  which  legend  makes 
more  lofty  still,  was,  after  that  of  Peter,  the  holiest  figure  of  primitive 
Christian  Rome.  Succeeding  ages  looked  upon  his  venerable  face  as 
that  of  a  mild  and  grave  legislator,  a  perpetual  homily  of  submission 
and  respect. 

"  Already  the  idea  of  a  certain  primacy  belonging  to  his  Church  was 
beginning  to  make  its  way  to  the  light.  The  right  of  warning  other 
Churches  and  of  composing  their  differences  was  conceded  to  it. 
Similar  privileges — so  at  least  it  was  believed — had  been  accorded  to 
Peter  by  the  other  disciples  {Luke  xxii.  32).  Thus  a  bond  which 
gradually  grew  closer  was  established  between  Peter  and  Rome.  Grave 
dissensions  tore  in  pieces  the  Church  of  Corinth  (Hegesip.  in  Euseb. 
Hist.  Eccles.  iii.  16,  iv.  22).  The  Roman  Church,  consulted  as  to  these 
troubles,  replied  in  a  letter  which  is  still  extant.  It  is  anonymous,  but 
a  very  ancient  tradition  assigns  the  composition  of  it  to  Clement" 
(pp.  124,  125). 

"  The  Roman  Church  was  henceforth  the  Church  of  order,  of  rule,  of 
subordination.  Its  fundamental  principle  was  that  humility  and  submis- 
sion were  of  more  account  than  the  sublimest  gifts.  Its  letter  to  the 
Corinthians  is  the  first  manifesto  of  the  principle  of  authority  made 
within  the  Christian  Church"  (p.  127). 

"  In  the  primitive  Christian  community,  the  importance  of  Churches 
was  in  proportion  to  their  apostolic  nobility.  The  guarantee  of  ortho- 
doxy was  the  diadoche,  the  Episcopal  succession  by  which  the  great 
Churches  were  connected  with  the  Apostles.  A  direct  succession  was 
a  very  strong  warrant  of  agreement  in  doctrine  ;  the  greatest  possible 
importance  was  attached  to  it.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  a  Church 
founded  both  by  Peter  and  Paul  ?  It  is  clear  that  such  a  Church  would 
be  regarded  as  having  a  real  superiority  over  all  others.  To  have  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  this  belief  was  the  masterpiece  of  that  cleverness 
which  characterised  the  Church  of  Rome.  By  the  time  of  Antoninus  Pius 
[a.d.  138]  almost  everybody  had  come  to  believe  that  Peter  and  Paul  had 
in  perfect  agreement  founded  Christianity  at  Rome,  and  had  sealed  the 
work  with  their  blood.  The  ecclesiastical  destiny  of  Rome  was  thence- 
forth fixed.  When  her  part  in  the  profane  world  was  played  out,  this 
extraordinary  city  was  destined  to  play  another  and  a  sacred  part,  a  part 
like  that  of  Jerusalem  "  (p.  148). 

After  mentioning  the  attempt  of  Valentinus  to  establish  a  Gnostic 
school  in  Rome,  and  his  excommunication  by  Pope  Hyginus,  he  says  : — 

"  The  centre  of  a  future  Catholic  orthodoxy  was  plainly  here.  Pius, 
who  succeeded  Hyginus,  showed  the  same  firmness  in  defending  the 


(     35     ) 


purity  of  the  faith.  Cerdo,  Marcion,  Valentinus,  Marcellinus,  are 
removed  from  the  Church  by  the  sentence  of  Pius.  In  the  reign  of 
Antoninus  [a.d.  138  seq.\  the  germ  of  the  Papacy  already  exists  in  a 
very  definite  for?n.  The  Church  of  Rome  shows  itself  increasingly 
indifferent  to  those  visionary  speculations  which  were  the  delight  of 
minds  full  of  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  Greeks,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  corrupted  by  the  dreams  of  the  East.  The  organisation  of 
Christian  society  was  the  chief  work  pursued  at  Rome.  That  wonder- 
ful city  brought  to  this  task  the  exclusively  practical  genius  and  the 
powerful  moral  energy  which  she  has  applied  in  so  many  different 
ways.  Almost  careless  of  speculation,  decisively  hostile  to  novelties  in 
doctrine,  she  presided,  as  a  mistress  already  practised  in  the  art,  over 
all  the  changes  which  took  place  in  the  discipline  and  the  hierarchy  of 
the  Church." 

"  What  was  in  process  of  development  in  the  Christian  Church  about 
the  year  120  or  130  was  the  Episcopate.  Now  the  creation  of  the 
Episcopate  was  evidently  the  work  of  Rome"  .  .  .  (pp.  148-151).  After 
pronouncing  this  to  be  a  "  complete  transformation  "  in  the  government 
of  the  Church,1  he  says  : — 

"  Nevertheless,  this  transformation  was  the  essential  condition  of  the 
energy  of  Christianity.  And  a  concentration  of  powers  became  at  once 
necessary  when  these  Churches  grew  up  to  be  tolerably  numerous :  the 
relations  between  these  little  pious  societies  were  possible  only  so  long 
as  they  had  acknowledged  representatives  entitled  to  act  for  them.  It  is 
besides  indisputable  that,  without  the  Episcopate,  Churches  brought  into 
union  for  a  moment  by  the  recollection  of  Jesus  would  soon  have  been 
scattered.  Divergencies  of  doctrine,  differences  in  turn  of  mind,  above 
all,  rivalries,  unsatisfied  self-appreciations,  would  have  produced  their 
characteristic  result  of  disunion  and  disintegration  without  end"  (p.  158). 

"  Thanks  to  the  Church  of  Rome,2  the  religion  of  Jesus  thus  acquired 
a  certain  solidity  and  consistency.  The  great  danger  of  Gnosticism, 
which  threatened  to  divide  Christendom  into  innumerable  sects,  was 
averted.  The  phrase  'Catholic  Church'  breaks  upon  us  from  all  sides 
at  once,  as  the  name  of  the  great  communion  which  is  destined  thence- 
forth to  come  down  the  ages  in  unbroken  unity.  And  the  character  of 
this  Catholicity  is  already  sufficiently  visible.  The  Montanists  are 
regarded  as  sectaries  ;  the  Marcionites  are  convicted  of  falsifying  apos- 
tolical doctrine  ;  the  different  Gnostic  schools  are  more  and  more  repelled 
from  the  bosom  of  the  general  Church.  There  is,  then,  something  which 
is  neither  Montanism,  nor  Marcionism,  nor  Gnosticism  —  unsectarian 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary,  perhaps,  to  observe,  that  M.  Renan's  expression  of 
erroneous  opinions,  on  this  and  some  other  points,  does  not  detract  from  the 
general  value  of  his  testimony  regarding  the  predominant  authority  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  at  this  early  period. 

2  Mr.  Palmer  of  Oxford  also  says : — "We  find  that  the  Roman  Church  was 
zealous  to  maintain  the  true  faith  from  the  earliest  period,  condemning  and 
expelling  the  Gnostics,  Artemonites,  &c. ;  and  during  the  Arian  mania  it  was 
the  bulwark  of  the  Catholic  Faith"  {On  the  Church,  vol.  ii.  pt.  vi.  ch.  3). 


(     36    ) 

Christianity,  the  Christianity  of  the  majority  of  Bishops,  resisting  and 
using  all  the  sects,  having,  if  you  will,  none  but  negative  characteristics, 
but  by  those  negative  characteristics  preserved  from  pietistic  aberrations 
and  dissolvent  rationalism"  (pp.  164,  165). 

After  giving  a  sketch  of  the  formation  of  Christendom,  and  remarking 
that  u  the  Empire  was,  as  it  were,  the  mould  in  which  the  new  religion 
took  shape :  the  inner  framework,  the  limits,  the  hierarchical  divisions 
of  the  Church  were  those  of  the  Empire  ;  "  and  that  "  under  Marcus 
Aurelius  the  Episcopate  is  completely  ripe  :  the  Papacy  exists  in  germ  " 
(p.  169),  he  continues  : — 

"Rome  was  the  place  in  which  this  great  idea  of  Catholicity  was 
worked  out.  More  and  more  every  day  it  became  the  capital  of  Chris- 
tianity^ ajid  took  the  place  of  Jerusalem  as  the  religious  centre  of 
humanity.  Its  Church  claimed  a  precedence  over  all  others  which  was 
generally  recognised  (Iren.  iii.  3;  Tertull.  Prcescript.  21,  36 ;  Cyprian, 
Epist.  52,  55,  67,  71,  75  ;  Firmilian).  All  the  doubtful  questions  which 
agitated  the  Christian  conscience  came  to  Rome  to  ask  for  arbitration, 
if  not  decision.  Men  argued,  certainly  not  in  a  very  logical  way,  that  as 
Christ  had  made  Cephas  the  corner-stone  of  His  Church,  the  privilege 
ought  to  be  inherited  by  his  successors.  .  .  .  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
became  the  Bishop  of  bishops,  he  who  admonished  all  others.  Rome 
proclaims  her  right — a  dangerous  right — of  excommunicating  those  who 
do  not  walk  step  by  step  with  her.  ...  At  the  end  of  the  second  century 
we  can  already  recognise,  by  signs  which  it  is  impossible  to  mistake,  the 
spirit  which  in  1870  will  proclaim  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  The 
writing  of  which  the  fragment  known  as  the  Canon  of  Muratori  formed  a 
part,  and  which  was  produced  at  Rome  about  the  year  180  A.D.,  shows 
us  Rome  already  defining  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  alleging  the  martyrdom 
of  Peter  as  the  foundation  of  Catholicity,  repudiating  Montanism  and 
Gnosticism  alike.  Irenasus  {Lib.  iii.  3)  refutes  all  heresies  by  reference  to 
the  belief  of  this  Church,  '  the  greatest,  the  oldest,  the  most  illustrious, 
which  possesses,  in  virtue  of  an  unbroken  succession,  the  true  tradition 
of  the  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  to  which,  because  of  its  Primacy, 
all  the  rest  of  the  Church  ought  to  have  recourse'"  (pp.  172-174). 

"  This  precedence  of  the  Church  of  Rome  only  became  more  marked 
in  the  third  century.  The  Bishops  of  Rome  showed  a  rare  ability  in 
avoiding  theological  questions,  while  they  kept  themselves  to  the  front 
in  all  matters  of  organisation  and  administration.  The  tradition  of  the 
Roman  Church  passes  for  the  most  ancient  of  all  (Origen,  in  Euseb. 
Hist.  Eccles.  vi.  14).  Cornelius  takes  the  first  place  in  the  affair  of  Nova- 
tianism  :  we  see  him,  in  especial,  depriving  Italian  Bishops  and  nomi- 
nating their  successors  (Letter  of  Cornelius  in  Euseb.  vi.  43).  Rome 
was  also  the  central  authority  of  the  African  Churches  (Tertull.  Pr&s.  21  ; 
Cyprian.  Epist.  52,  55,  71,  75)"  (P-  176). 

After  speaking  of  the  injury  done  to  the  City  of  Rome  by  the  Emperor 
Constantine's  transference  of  the  seat  of  government  to  Constantinople, 
and  by  the  invasions  of  barbarians  that  followed,  he  says  : — 


(     37    ) 

"  Rome's  first  revenge  is  taken  in  the  gravity  and  depth  of  her  organ- 
ising spirit.  What  men  are  St.  Sylvester,  St.  Damasus,  St.  Gregory  the 
Great  !  With  admirable  courage  Rome  labours  for  the  conversion  of 
the  barbarians  ;  she  attaches  them  to  herself ;  she  makes  them  her  clients, 
her  subjects.  The  masterpiece  of  her  policy  was  her  alliance  with  the 
Carolingian  House,  and  the  bold  stroke  by  which  she  revived  in  that 
family  the  Empire  which  had  been  dead  for  300  years.  The  Church  of 
Rome  then  lifts  herself  up  more  powerful  than  ever,  and  again,  for  eight 
centuries  more,  becomes  the  centre  of  all  Western  politics  "  (pp.  198,  199) 
— Renan's  Hibbert  Lectures  on  the  Influence  of  the  Institutions,  Thought, 
and  Culture  of  Rome  on  Christianity  and  the  Development  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  Eng.  trans.,  1880). 

M.  GUIZOT,  the  Protestant  historian  of  France,  speaking  of  the  fifth 
century,  when  the  Roman  Empire  was  in  the  agonies  of  dissolution,  and 
the  whole  of  Europe  was  inundated  by  hordes  of  barbarians,1  says  : — 

"  I  do  not  think  that  I  say  more  than  the  truth  in  affirming  that 
it  was  the  Christian  Church  which  saved  Christianity ;  it  was  the 
Church  with  its  institutions,  its  magistrates,  and  its  power  that  vigorously 
resisted  both  the  internal  dissolution  of  the  Empire  and  barbarism  ; 
which  conquered  the  barbarians,  and  became  the  bond,  the  medium,  and 
the  principle  of  civilisation  between  the  Roman  and  barbarian  worlds. 
...  In  the  midst  of  that  deluge  of  material  force  which  at  this  period 
overwhelmed  society,  there  was  an  immense  benefit  in  the  presence  of  a 
moral  influence,  a  moral  power,  a  power  which  derived  all  its  force  from 
convictions,  from  belief,  from  moral  sentiments.  Had  there  been  no 
Christian  Church,  the  whole  world  would  have  been  abandoned  to  mere 
material  force.  The  Church  alone  exercised  a  moral  power"  (Guizot's 
Hist.  Gen.  de  la  Civilisation  en  Europe,  3d  ed.,  Paris,  1840,  2eme  Lecon). 

"  The  Church  was  a  regularly  organised  society,  having  its  principles, 
its  rules,  its  discipline,  and  animated  with  an  ardent  desire  of  extending 
its  influence,2  of  conquering  its  conquerors.  Among  the  Christians  of 
this  period,  among  the  Christian  clergy,  there  were  men  who  had  thought 

1  "  Let  us  reflect  for  a  moment,"  says  M.  Gosselin,  "  on  the  character  of  the 
barbarous  hordes  which,  after  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  partitioned  among 
themselves  the  members  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West.  Completely  ignorant 
of  the  arts  and  sciences  and  of  civilisation,  they  knew  no  other  occupation  but 
hunting  and  war ;  no  law  but  force  ;  no  glory  but  conquest ;  and,  far  from  feeling 
the  inconveniences  and  disorder  of  this  savage  state,  they  professed  a  sovereign 
contempt  for  a  mode  of  life  more  refined.  The  Christian  religion,  which  they  all 
embraced,  softened  by  degrees  their  ferocious  manners  ;  but  this  inestimable 
effect  of  their  conversion  was  slow  and  insensible ;  the  majority  of  them  long 
retained  their  ancient  habits — that  is,  their  inconstant,  violent,  and  ungovernable 
temper  ;  their  passionate  taste  for  hunting  and  war  ;  their  profound  contempt  for 
the  arts  and  sciences  ;  and  especially  the  spirit  of  insubordination  and  independ- 
ence, which  seemed  to  be  the  most  deeply  marked  trait  in  their  character" 
{The  Pozver  of  the  Popes  during  the  Middle  Ages,  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  ii.  p.  40). 

2  "After  the  fifth  century,  Papacy  took  the  lead  in  the  conversion  of  the 
Pagans"  (Guizot's  Hist,  of  Civilisation  in  France,  Bohn's  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  iu 
P.  173). 


(     38     ) 

upon  all  moral  and  political  questions,  who  had  decided  opinions  and 
energetic  sentiments  upon  all  subjects,  and  a  vivid  desire  to  propagate 
and  give  them  empire.  No  society  ever  made  more  vigorous  efforts  to 
make  her  influence  felt,  and  to  mould  to  her  own  form  the  world  around 
her,  than  the  Christian  Church  from  the  fifth  to  the  tenth  century.  She 
had,  in  a  manner,  assailed  barbarism  on  all  points,  to  civilise  by  subduing 
it "  (lb.  3hme  Lecon,  p.  86). 

"All  the  civil  elements  of  modern  society  [municipal  government,  the 
feudal  system  and  royalty]  were  either  in  their  infancy  or  in  decrepitude. 
The  Church  alone  was  young  and  organised  ;  she  alone  had  acquired  a 
settled  form,  and  retained  all  the  vigour  of  her  prime  ;  she  alone  had 
both  activity  and  order,  energy  and  a  system,  that  is,  the  two  great 
means  of  influence.  .  .  .  The  Church  had,  moreover,  agitated  all  the 
great  questions  which  concern  man ;  she  was  solicitous  about  all  the 
problems  of  his  nature,  about  all  the  chances  of  his  destiny.  Hence,  her 
influence  on  modern  civilisation  has  been  immense,  greater  perhaps  than 
has  ever  been  imagined  by  her  most  ardent  adversaries  or  her  most 
zealous  advocates.  Absorbed  either  in  her  defence  or  in  aggression,  they 
considered  her  only  in  a  polemical  point  of  view,  and  they  have  failed, 
I  am  convinced,  in  judging  her  with  fairness,  and  in  measuring  her  in  all 
her  dimensions"  (lb.  5eme  Legon,  p.  132). 

The  Rev.  H.  MlLMAN,  D.D.  (late  Dean  of  St.  Paul's),  says  :— 
"  Christianity,  in  its  Latin  form,  which  for  centuries  was  to  be  its 
most  powerful,  enduring,  and  prolific  development,  wanted,  for  her 
stability  and  unity  of  influence,  a  capital  and  a  centre  ;  and  Rome  might 
seem  deserted  by  her  Emperors  for  the  express  purpose  of  allowing  the 
spiritual  monarchy  to  grow  up  without  any  dangerous  collision  against 
the  civil  government.  The  Emperors  had  long  withdrawn  from  Rome  as 
the  royal  residence.  Of  those  who  bore  the  title,  one  ruled  in  Constan- 
tinople, and,  more  and  more  absorbed  in  the  cares  and  calamities  of  the 
Eastern  sovereignty,  became  gradually  estranged  from  the  affairs  of  the 
West.  .  .  .  The  Western  Emperor  lingered  for  a  time  in  inglorious 
obscurity  among  the  marshes  of  Ravenna,  till  at  length  the  faint  shadow 
of  monarchy  melted  away,  and  a  barbarian  assumed  the  power  and  the 
appellation  of  Sovereign  of  Italy.  Still,  of  the  barbarian  kings,  not  one 
ventured  to  fix  himself  in  the  ancient  capital,  or  to  inhabit  the  mouldering 
palaces  of  the  older  Caesars.  .  .  . 

"  It  was  not  solely  as  a  Christian  Bishop,  and  Bishop  of  that  city 
which  was  still,  according  to  the  prevailing  feeling,  the  capital  of  the 
world,  but  as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  of  him  who  was  now  acknow- 
ledged to  be  the  head  of  the  Apostolic  body,  that  the  Roman  Pontiff 
commanded  the  veneration  of  Rome  and  of  Christendom.  ...  At  the 
commencement  of  the  fifth  century,  the  lineal  descent  of  the  Pope  from 
St.  Peter  was  an  accredited  tenet  of  Christianity.  .  .  . 

"  Everything  tended  to  confirm,  nothing  to  impede  or  to  weaken,  the 
gradual  condensation  of  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  Supreme 


(     39    ) 

Bishop.  The  majesty  of  the  notion  of  one  all-powerful  ruler,  to  which 
the  world  had  been  so  long  familiarised  in  the  Emperors  ;  the  discord 
and  emulation  among  the  other  prelates,  both  of  the  East  and  West,  and 
the  manifold  advantage  of  a  supreme  arbiter ;  the  unity  of  the  visible 
Church,  which  was  becoming — or  had  indeed  become — the  dominant 
idea  of  Christendom ; — all  seemed  to  demand,  or,  at  least,  had  a  strong 
tendency  to  promote  and  to  maintain,  the  necessity  of  one  Supreme 
Head.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  West,  throughout  Latin  Christendom,  the  Roman  See,  in  anti- 
quity, in  dignity,  in  the  more  regular  succession  of  its  prelates,  stood  alone 
and  unapproachable.  In  the  great  Eastern  bishoprics  the  holy  lineage 
had  been  already  broken  and  confused  by  the  claims  of  rival  prelates, 
by  the  usurpation  of  Bishops  accounted  heretical,  at  the  present  period 
Arians  or  Macedonians  or  Apollinarians,  later  Nestorians  or  Mono- 
physites"1  (Milman's  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity,  Book  ii.  ch.  i.  vol.  i. 
p.  104  sea.,  ed.  1867). 

Speaking  of  the  fall  of  Rome  under  Alaric,  A.D.  410,  he  says  : — "That 
which  might  have  appeared  the  most  fatal  blow  to  Roman  greatness,  as 
dissolving  the  spell  of  Roman  empire,  the  capture,  the  conflagration, 
the  plunder,  the  depopulation  of  Rome  by  the  barbarian  Goths,  tended 
directly  to  establish  and  strengthen  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome. 
It  was  pagan  Rome,  the  Babylon  of  sensuality,  pride,  and  idolatry, 
which  fell  before  the  triumphant  Alaric  ;  the  Goths  were  the  instruments 
of  Divine  vengeance  against  paganism,  which  lingered  in  this  its  last 
stronghold.  Christianity  hastened  to  disclaim  all  interest,  all  sympathy, 
in  the  fate  of  '  the  harlot  that  sat  on  the  seven  hills ' "  (lb.  p.  120). 

"However  the  first  appalling  intelligence  of  this  event  shook  the 
Roman  world  to  its  centre,  and  the  fearful  scene  of  pillage,  violation,  and 
destruction  by  fire  and  sword  was  imagined  to  surpass  in  its  horrors 
everything  recorded  in  profane  or  sacred  history,  yet  the  shock  passed 
away,  and  Rome  quietly  assumed  her  second,  her  Christian  empire.  .  .  . 
Innocent  [the  Pope]  returned  to  a  city,  if  in  some  parts  ruined  and  deso- 
late, now  entirely  Christian  :  the  ancient  religion  was  buried  under  the 
ruins.  .  .  .  Babylon  has  fallen,  and  fallen  for  ever  ;  the  City  of  God,  at 
least  the  centre  and  stronghold  of  the  City  of  God,  is  in  Christian  Rome" 
(lb.  pp.  130,  136,  138). 

"  The  Pontificate  of  Leo  the  Great  [A.D.  440]  is  one  of  the  epochs  in 
the  history  of  Latin,  or  rather  of  universal  Christianity.  Christendom, 
wherever  mindful  of  its  Divine  origin  and  of  its  proper  humanising  and 
hallowing  influence,  might  turn  away  in  shame  from  these  melancholy  and 
disgraceful  [religious]  contests  in  the  East.     On  the  throne  of  Rome  alone, 

1  "In  the  East,  religion  ceased  more  and  more  to  be  an  affair  of  pure  religion. 
It  was  mingled  up  with  all  the  intrigues  of  the  Imperial  Court,  with  all  the  furies 
of  faction  in  the  great  cities.  .  .  .  The  rivalry  of  the  Sees  darkened  into  the 
fiercest  personal  hostility.  .  .  .  The  deeper  the  East  was  sunk  in  anarchy  and 
confusion,  the. more* commanding  the  stately  superiority  of  Rome"  (lb.  ch.  iii. 
pp.  177-195)- 


(    40     ) 

of  all  the  greater  Sees,  did  religion  maintain  its  majesty,  its  sanctity,  its 
piety ;  and,  if  it  demanded  undue  deference  ;  the  world  would  not  be 
inclined  rigidly  to  question  pretensions  supported  as  well  by  such  con- 
scious power  as  by  such  singular  and  unimpeachable  virtue  ;  and  by 
such  inestimable  benefits  conferred  on  Rome,  on  the  Empire,  on  civili- 
sation. .  .  .Supremacy,  held  by  so  firm  and  vigorous  a  hand  as  that 
of  Leo,  might  see?n  almost  ?iecessary  to  Christendom  "  {lb.  ch.  iv.  pp. 
228,  254). 

Speaking  of  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  of  Christianity,  when 
"anarchy  threatened  the  whole  West  of  Europe,  and  had  already  almost 
enveloped  Italy  in  ruin  and  destruction,"  Milman  says  : — "  Now  was 
the  crisis  in  which  the  Papacy  must  reawaken  its  obscured  and 
suspended  life.  //  was  the  only  power  which  lay  not  entirely  and  abso- 
lutely prostrate  befoi'e  the  disasters  of  tJie  times — a  power  which  had  an 
inhere7it  strength,  and  might  resume  its  majesty.  It  was  this  power 
which  was  most  i7nperatively  required  to  preserve  all  which  was  to 
survive  out  of  the  crumbling  wreck  of  Roman  civilisation.  To  Western 
Christianity  was  absolutely  necessary  a  ce7itre,  standing  alone,  strong  in 
traditio7iary  revere7ice  a7id  i7i  ack7iowledged  claims  to  suprc77iacy.  Even 
the  perfect  organisation  of  the  Christian  hierarchy  might  in  all  human 
probability  have  fallen  to  pieces  in  perpetual  conflict ;  it  might  have 
degenerated  into  a  half-secular  feudal  caste,  with  hereditary  benefices, 
more  and  more  entirely  subservient  to  the  civil  authority,  a  priesthood  of 
each  nation  or  each  tribe,  gradually  sinking  to  the  intellectual  or  religious 
level  of  the  nation  or  tribe.  On  the  rise  of  a  power  both  CONTROL- 
ling and  conservative  hung,  humanly  speaking,  the  life  and 
death  of  Christianity  —  of  Christianity  as  a  permanent, 
aggressive,  expansive,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  uniform  sys- 
TEM. There  must  be  a  counterbalance  to  barbaric  force,  to  the  unavoid- 
able anarchy  of  Teutonism,  with  its  tribal,  or  at  the  utmost  national, 
independence,  forming  a  host  of  small,  conflicting,  antagonistic  kingdoms. 
.  .  .  It  is  i77ipossible  to  co7iceive  what  had  bee7i  the  co7tfusio7i,  the  lawless- 
7iess,  the  chaotic  state  of  the  Middle  Ages  without  the  77iediaval  Papacy  ; 
and  of  the  mediaeval  Papacy  the  real  father  is  Gregory  the  Great "  {lb. 
Book  iii.  ch.  vii.  vol.  ii.  pp.  100-102). 

Speaking  of  the  seventh  century,  he  says  : — "  It  was  Christianity  alone 
which  maintained  some  kind  of  combination  among  the  crumbling  frag- 
ments of  the  Roman  Empire.  .  .  .  Christianity  alone  was  a  bond  of 
union,  strong  and  enduring.  The  Teuto7iic  kingdoms  acknowledged  their 
allegia7ice  to  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Rome  :  Rome  was  the  centre 
a7id  capital  of  Western  Christc7tdo7n"  {lb.  Book  iv.  ch.  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  225), 
"  The  Metropolis  of  Christia7iity  "  (ch.  v.  p.  299). 

After  giving  an  account  of  the  conversion  of  England,  Germany,  and 
other  countries  by  the  Missionaries  sent  by  the  Popes  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries,  he  says  : — "All  these  conquests  of  Christianity  were,  in 
a  certain  sense,  the  conquests  of  the  Roman  See  ;  .  .  .  reverence  for 
Rome  penetrated  with  the  gospel  to  the  remotest  parts.     Germany  was 


(    4i     ) 

converted  to  Latin  Christianity.  Rome  was  the  source,  the  centre,  the 
regulating  authority  recognised  by  the  English  apostles  of  the  Teutons. 
The  clergy  were  constantly  visiting  Rome  as  the  religious  capital  of  the 
world,  to  do  homage  to  the  head  of  Western  Christendom,  to  visit  the 
shrines  of  the  Apostles,  the  more  devout  to  obtain  reliques,  the  more 
intellectual,  knowledge,  letters,  arts  "  {lb.  ch.  vi.  p.  307). 

"  Such  was  the  power  of  religion  in  those  times,  that  not  merely  did  it 
enable  the  clergy  to  dictate  their  policy  to  armed  and  powerful  sovereigns, 
to  arrest  barbarian  invasion,  and  to  snatch,  as  it  were,  conquests  already 
in  their  rapacious  hands  ;  in  every  quarter  of  Western  Europe  kings  were 
seen  abdicating  their  thrones,  placing  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope 
as  humble  penitents,  casting  off  their  pomp,  and  submitting  to  the 
privations  and  the  discipline  of  monks"  {lb.  Book  iv.  ch.  xi.  vol.  iii. 
p.  6). 

Speaking  of  the  causes  of  the  degradation  of  the  Papacy  in  the  tenth 
century,  he  says  : — "  In  the  tenth  century  the  few  reflecting  minds  might 
not  without  reason  apprehend  the  approaching  dissolution  of  the  world. 
A  vast  anarchy  seemed  to  spread  over  Western  Christendom.  It  is 
perhaps  the  darkest  period  in  the  history  of  every  country  in  Europe. 
The  Pagan  Magyars,  more  terrible  even  than  the  Islamite  Saracens  and 
the  Pagan  Northmen,  now  burst  upon  Europe.  .  .  .  The  Magyars,  or 
Hungarians,  seemed  as  hordes  of  savages  or  of  wild  beasts  let  loose  upon 
mankind.  They  burst  unexpectedly  upon  Christendom  in  swarms  of 
which  the  source  seemed  unknown  and  inexhaustible.  Indiscriminate 
massacre  seemed  their  only  war  law  ;  they  were  bound  by  no  treaties, 
respected  no  boundaries.  Civilisation,  Christianity,  withered  before  their 
hosts.  .  .  .  They  rushed  down  the  Alps  ;  Italy  lay  open  before  them. 
Splendid  Pavia,  with  its  forty-three  churches,  was  in  ashes.  .  .  .  Rome 
beheld  at  no  great  distance  the  flame  of  their  devastation  ;  they  spread 
to  the  very  extremity  of  the  peninsula.1  .  .  .  The  anarchy  of  Italy 
led  to  the  degradation  of  the  Papacy"  (Book  v.  ch.  xi.  vol.  iii.  pp. 
279-282). 

"  The  devout  indignation  of  Baronius  as  to  these  times 2  arose  no 
doubt  in  great  part  from  the  severe  but  honest  asceticism  of  his 
character,  and  his  horror  at  this  violation  of  his  high  notions  of  sacer- 
dotal sanctity  by  what  appeared  to  him  far  more  unseemly  and  unpar- 
donable criminality  than  arrogance,  avarice,  or  cruelty.  His  fears,  too, 
lest  he  should  be  accused  of  an  immoral  partiality  by  the  slightest 
extenuation,  or  even  by  a  dispassionate  examination  of  such  vices"  (of 

1  "  The  Hungarians  for  half  a  century  were  the  common  terror  of  Christendom, 
from  their  first  irruption  about  a.d.  884  to  A.D.  936,  the  date  of  the  first  great 
victory  of  Henry  the  Fowler.  Gradually  the  Magyars  settled  down  within  the 
limits  of  modern  Hungary.  At  the  beginning  of  the  next  century  Christianity  had 
entirely  subdued  them,  and  with  a  kind  of  prophetic  instinct  had  arrayed  this  valiant 
nation  as  a  future  outguard  against  the  Mohammedan  Turks ;  their  King  Stephen 
was  a  Saint"  (Milman,  loc.  cit.t  p.  2S0).         ,^^^5 

2  Milman  is  here  referring  to  the  very  dark  picture  drawn^by  Cardinal  Baronius 
of  the  condition  of  the  Papacy  in  the  tenth  century. 


(       42       ) 

some  of  the  Popes  of  that  age),  "  has  led  him  to  exaggerate  rather  than 
soften  the  monstrous  enormities  of  these  times.  And  the  happy  thought, 
happy  in  a  thoroughgoing  controversialist,  that  the  deeper  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  Papacy,  the  more  wonderful,  and  therefore  the  more  mani- 
festly of  God,  its  restoration  to  power,  removed  every  remaining  repug- 
nance to  his  abandonment  of  all  the  Popes  during  the  tenth  century  to 
historical  infamy.  .  .  .  Luitprand  is  the  chief,  the  only  authority  on 
which  Baronius  rests"1  (Id.  Book  v.  ch.  xi.  p.  288,  note). 

Of  Pope  Leo  IX.  (a.d.  io54)Milman  says  : — "  Leo  came  forth  to  Europe, 
not  only  with  the  power  and  dignity,  but  with  the  austere  holiness,  the 
indefatigable  religious  activity,  the  majestic  virtue,  which  became  the 
Head  of  Christendom.  ...  In  this  single  spiritual  campaign  [his  reli- 
gious visitation  of  Europe],  by  the  calm  dignity  of  his  holiness,  by  his 
appeal  to  the  strong  religious  reverence  of  Christendom,  he  had  restored 
the  Papacy  to  all  its  former  authority  over  the  minds  of  men  "  (lb.  Book 
vi.  ch.  i.  vol.  iii.  pp.  373,  382). 


Neander,  the  German  (Protestant)  Church  historian,  speaking  of  the 
conflict  of  the  Church  with  the  Empire  under  Pope  Gregory  VII.  (Hilde- 
brand),  says  : — 

1  This  fact  is  important,  inasmuch  as  the  learned  MuRATORl  ("whose  accu- 
racy," says  Hallam,  "is  in  general  almost  implicitly  to  be  trusted,  and  whose 
plain  integrity  speaks  in  all  his  writings,"  Middle  Ages,  ch.  iii.  p.  1,  note)  charges 
Luitprand  with  having  "given  credit  to  all  the  pasquinades  and  defamatory  libels 
of  the  times"  (Annal.  v.  ii.  16,  36,  43,  &c). 

"The  scandals  given  by  some  occupants  of  the  Papal  Chair,"  says  a  Catholic 
writer,  "  are  a  fruitful  theme  of  reproach,  on  which  Protestants  delight  to 
expatiate ;  yet  if  we  consider  the  turbulence  of  the  times,  the  total  disorganisation 
of  society,  the  temporary  ascendancy  obtained  at  Rome  by  some  petty  potentates, 
the  national  partialities  which  favoured  some  intruders  through  jealousy  of 
German  influence,  we  shall  not  be  astonished  that  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  some  instances  occurred  of  wicked  and  ambitious  men  who  seized  on 
the  reins  of  government."  In  regard  to  the  charges  made  against  various  Popes 
in  the  same  or  following  centuries,  this  author  observes  : — "  The  character  of 
several  Popes  has  suffered  unjustly  from  the  interested  misrepresentations  of 
rivals  or  their  partisans,  as  also  of  the  adherents  of  schismatical  emperors  and 
kings.  National  jealousies  led  the  Italians  to  satirise  the  French  Popes  who  sat 
at  Avignon,  while  the  French  viewed  with  no  partiality  several  who  sat  at  Rome. 
The  civil  relations  of  the  Pontiff  to  his  subjects  have  often  cast  odium  on  the 
exercise  of  his  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  his  political  associations  with  various 
princes  have  contributed  in  no  slight  degree  to  excite  the  rancour  and  provoke  the 
animadversions  of  writers  of  other  nations.  Certain  historians  assume  the  air  of 
candour  by  reciting  the  very  words  of  some  contemporary  who  has  recorded  his 
view  of  the  personal  character  or  public  acts  of  an  individual  Pope,  without 
reflecting  that  he  may  have  mistaken  rumour  for  facts,  and  followed  the  bias  of 
partisanship  to  the  prejudice  of  truth  and  justice.  I  feel  it  unnecessary  to  enter 
into  a  detailed  vindication  of  the  various  Pontiffs  whose  character  is  more  gener- 
ally the  object  of  attack  ;  but  I  fearlessly  say,  that  considering  the  long  succes- 
sion of  Popes,  the  convulsions  of  society,  the  vicissitudes  of  Rome,  and  the  end- 
less variety  of  circumstances  in  which  the  Popes  have  been  placed,  it  is  nothing 
short  of  a  miracle  that,  in  general,  their  character  has  been  pure  and  exalted, 
whilst  their  succession  has  been  inviolably  maintained." 


(     43     ) 

"  The  great  question  was  .  .  .  whether  the  system  of  the  Church 
theocracy,  the  spiritual  universal  monarchy,  should  come  off  victorious 
in  the  contest  with  a  rude  secular  power,  or  should  be  laid  prostrate 
at  its  feet.  .  .  .  The  corruption  of  the  Church,  threatening  its  utter 
secularisation,  had  now  reached  its  highest  pitch,  and  that  very  cir- 
cumstance had  called  forth  a  reformatory  reaction  on  the  part  of  the 
Church.  Such  a  reaction  could,  however,  under  the  existing  conditions, 
ONLY  proceed from  the  side  of  this  Church  Theocracy?-  since  those  who  were 
most  zealous  against  the  abuses  that  had  crept  in  we?'e  governed  by  this 
spiritual  tende?icy.  .  .  .  Gregory  was  certainly  inspired  with  some  higher 
motive  than  selfish  ambition,  a  selfish  love  of  domination.  .  .  .  There 
were  men  animated  by  a  warm  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  and 
against  the  deep-rooted  abuses  of  the  times,  who  expected  from  this 
imperial  sovereignty  of  the  Church,  wielded  by  the  Popes,  the  correction 
of  all  evils.  .  .  . 

11  It  was  by  the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy,  and  the  confusion  existing  in 
all  parts  of  the  Church  constitution,  that  the  reforming  tendencies  of  the 
Hildebrandian  epoch  had  been  called  forth.  A  part  of  the  abuses  which 
had  crept  in,  those  which  the  rude  arbitrary  proceedings  of  monarchs  had 
introduced,  were  thoroughly  cotmteracted  by  the  triumph  of  the  Hilde- 
brandian system  ;  a  great  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the  clergy  and  of  the 
Church  life,  after  the  pattern  of  the  primitive  Apostolical  Church,  as  it 
presented  itself  to  the  imagination  of  the  men  of  this  period,  commenced 
fr&m  this  epoch.  A  bond  of  union  was  here  presented  between  all  the 
opponents  of  the  reigning  corruption,  all  men  in  all  Churches  who  were 
zealous  for  a  strict  severity  of  morals  among  the  clergy,  and  the  worthy 
celebration  of  the  offices  of  worship.  .  .  .  The  Hildebratidian  epoch  of 
reform  was  accompanied  with  the  outpouring  of  a  spirit  of  compunction 
andrepentance  on  the  Western  nations"  (Neander's  Hist,  of  the  Church, 
Eng.  trans.,  Bohn's  edit.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  Ill,  112,  284,  322).2 

1  Comp.  Guizot,  Lect.  vi.  : — "There  was  within  the  whole  Church  but  one 
force  adequate  to  it,  and  that  was  the  Court  of  Rome,  the  Papacy." 

2  That  the  outpouring  of  a  very  different  spirit  accompanied  the  Lzitheran  epoch 
of  "  reform,"  will  appear  from  the  testimonies  hereafter  cited. 

Neander  elsewhere  speaks  of  the  immense  good  done  by  the  Monastic  Orders, 
and  especially  by  those  monks  "who  travelled  about  as  preachers  of  repentance, 
and  who  sided  with  the  Popes  in  combating  the  prevailing  corruption  of  manners 
and  the  vicious  clergy "  (lb.  vol.  vii.  p.  133.  See  pp.  330,  331,  339,  341  seq., 
349  seq.,  372-399,  &c).  In  short,  he  considers  that  "to  the  epochs  that  mark 
the  commencement  of  a  new  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  may  be  reckoned  the 
opening  of  the  twelfth  century  ;  and  the  after  effects  of  the  religious  awakening, 
which  then  began  among  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West,  extend  far  into  the 
period  now  before  us.  .  .  .  The  religious  life  was  continually  receiving  a  fresh 
impulse  from  influences  of  various  kinds  :  from  the  vigorous  measures  of  Gregory 
VII.  to  promote  a  reform  in  the  whole  Church ;  from  the  impressions  produced 
on  the  multitude  by  the  preaching  of  the  Crusades;  from  the  effects  wrought  by 
distinguished  preachers  of  the  clerical,  and  more  especially  of  the  monastic  order, 
who  itinerated  through  the  countries,  exhorting  men  to  repentance ;  from  the 
founding  of  the  two  Orders  of  mendicant  friars,  &c."  (lb.  p.  406.  See  also  pp. 
483,  484,  492). 


(    44    ) 

Colonel  Mitchell  observes  : — "Deep  and  indelible  is  the  debt  which 
religion  a?id  civilisation  owe  to  the  early  Roman  Pontiffs  and  to  the 
Church  of  Rome.  They  strove  long  and  nobly  to  forward  the  cause  of 
human  improvement,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  other  power  could 
have  exercised  so  beneficial  an  influence  over  the  fierce  and  fiery  nations 
who  established  themselves  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  Empire,  after 
rooting  out  all  that  remained  of  ancient  art  and  ancient  knowledge.  Nor 
were  their  efforts  confined  within  these  territorial  limits  :  monks  and 
missionaries,  disregarding  personal  danger,  penetrated  into  the  forests  of 
Germany  and  into  the  distant  regions  of  the  North,  and,  unappalled  by 
the  deaths  of  torture  to  which  so  many  holy  men  had  fallen  victims, 
preached  to  heathens  and  barbarians  the  mild  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
which  only  sprung  up  in  Europe  watered  by  the  blood  of  saints  and 
martyrs.  Even  the  efforts  of  the  Church  to  interpose  its  spiritual  power 
in  the  direction  of  temporal  affairs,  and  to  control  the  conduct  of  kings 
and  princes,  were  beneficial  in  an  age  when  the  clergy  alone  possessed 
whatever  learning  and  knowledge  were  extant ;  and  the  uniformity  of 
belief  which  rendered  all  the  Western  Churches  dependent  on  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Pope — an  authority  so  greatly  enlightened,  when  contrasted 
with  the  general  darkness  of  the  times — became  a  principal  cause  of  the 
progress  and  prosperity  of  the  Catholic  world"  (Mitchell's  Life  of 
IVallenstein,  pp.  4,  5,  edit.  1837). 

M.  Ancillon,  a  French  Calvinist,  says  : — "During  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  there  was  no  social  order,  the  Papacy  alone  perhaps  saved  Europe 
from  utter  barbarism.  It  created  bonds  of  connection  between  the  most 
distant  nations  ;  it  was  a  common  centre,  a  rallying-point  for  isolated 
states.  It  was  a  supreme  tribunal  established  in  the  midst  of  universal 
anarchy ;  and  its  decrees  were  sometimes  as  respectable  as  they  were 
respected  ;  it  prevented  and  arrested  the  despotism  of  the  Emperors  and 
diminished  the  evils  of  the  feudal  system"  {Tableau  des  Revolutions  du 
Systeme  Politique  de  P Europe,  vol.  i.  Introduct.,  pp.  133,  157). 

The  German  Protestant  Church  historian  StAUDLEIN  says  : — 
"The  Papacy  was  productive  of  many  beneficial  effects.  ...  It 
united  in  one  common  bond  the  different  European  nations,  furthered 
their  mutual  intercourse,  and  became  a  channel  for  the  communication 
of  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  without  it  the  fine  arts,  doubtless,  would  not 
have  attained  to  so  high  a  degree  of  perfection.  The  Papal  power  restrained 
political  despotism,  and  from  the  rude  multitude  kept  off  many  of  the 
vices  of  barbarism  "  {Universal  Church  History,  Hanover,  1806,  p.  203). 

Herder,  another  eminent  Protestant  writer,  says  : — 
"  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  Roman  hierarchy  was  a  necessary  po 
without  which  there  would  have  been  no  cheek  upon  the  untutored  nations 
of  the  Middle  Ages.     Without  it,  Europe  would  have  fallen  under  the 
power  of  a  despot,  would  have  become  the  theatre  of  interminable  con- 


(    45     ) 

flicts,  and  have  been  converted  into  a  Mongolian  desert "  {Ideas  07i  the 
History  of  Mankind,  Part  iv.  p.  303.     Cf.  p.  194  seq.) 

John  von  Muller,  the  historian  of  Switzerland,  says  : — 
"  All  the  enlightenment  of  the  present  day,  whereof  the  daring  spirit  of 
Europe  will  not  allow  us  to  forecast  the  ultimate  consequences,  either  to 
ourselves  or  to  the  other  nations  of  the  world,  came  originally  from  that 
hierarchy  which,  when  the  Roman  Empire  fell  to  pieces,  sustained 
and  directed  the  human  race.  It  imparted,  so  to  speak,  to  the  mind  of 
Northern  Europe,  which  as  yet  possessed  neither  elevation  nor  grasp  of 
thought,  a  stirring,  an  Energising,  and  a  life-giving  impulse,  under  the  im- 
pact of  which  it  was  carried  forward, — retarded  indeed  by  many  ad- 
verse, and  accelerated  by  some  favourable  circumstances, — till  it  finally 
achieved  the  triumphs  that  are  now  before  the  world  "  {Hist,  of  Switzer- 
land, Book  iii.  ch.  i.). 

The  Rev.  E.  Cutts,  D.D.,  in  a  work  published  by  the  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Christian  Knowledge,  says  : — 

"  In  the  Middle  Ages  the -Church  was  a  great  popular  institution.  .  .  . 
One  reason,  no  doubt,  of  the  popularity  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  was  that, 
it  had  always  been  the  champion  of  the  people  and  the  friend  of  the  poor. 
In  politics  the  Church  was  always  on  the  side  of  the  liberties  of  the  people 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  feudal  lords.  In  the  eye  of  the  nobles  the 
labouring  population  were  beings  of  an  inferior  caste ;  in  the  eye  of  the 
law  they  were  chattels  ;  in  the  eye  of  the  Church  they  were  brethren  in 
Christ,  souls  to  be  won  and  trained  and  fitted  for  heaven.  In  social  life 
the  Church  was  an  easy  landlord  and  a  kind  master.  .  .  .  On  the  whole, 
with  many  drawbacks,  the  Mediaeval  Church  did  its  duty — according  to 
its  own  light — to  the  people.  It  was  the  great  cultivator  of  learning  and 
art,  and  it  did  its  best  to  educate  the  people.  It  had  vast  political  influ- 
ence, and  used  it  on  the  side  of  the  liberties  of  the  people.  .  .  By  means 
of  its  painting  and  sculpture  in  the  churches,  its  mystery  plays,  its  reli- 
gious festivals,  its  catechising  and  its  preaching,  it  is  probable  that  the 
chief  facts  of  the  Gospel  history  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Creeds  were 
more  universally  known  and  more  vividly  realised  than  among  the  masses 
of  our  present  population  "  {Turning-Points  of  English  Church  History, 
1874,  pp.  161-165). 

James  Anthony  Froude,  the  historian,  says  : — 

"Never  in  all  their  history,  in  ancient  times  or  modern,  never  that 
we  know  of,  have  mankind  thrown  out  of  themselves  anything  so 
grand,  so  useful,  so  beautiful  as  the  Catholic  Church  once  was.  In 
these  times  of  ours,  well-regulated  selfishness  is  the  recognised  rule  of 
action — every  one  of  us  is  expected  to  look  out  for  first  himself,  and  take 
care  of  his  own  interests.  At  the  time  I  speak  of,  the  Church  ruled 
the  State  with  the  authority  of  a  conscience  ;  and  self-interest,  as 
a  motive  of  action,  was  only   named  to  be  abhorred.     The  Bishops 


(    46     ) 

and  clergy  were  regarded  freely  and  simply  as  the  immediate  minis- 
ters of  the  Almighty  ;  and  they  seem  to  me  to  have  really  deserved 
that  high  esti?nate  of  their  character.  It  was  not  for  the  doctrines  which 
they  taught,  only  or  chiefly,  that  they  were  held  in  honour.  Brave  men 
do  not  fall  down  before  their  fellow-mortals  for  the  words  which  they 
speak,  or  for  the  rites  which  they  perform.  Wisdom,  justice,  self-denial, 
nobleness,  purity,  high-mindedness — these  are  the  qualities  before  which 
the  free-born  races  of  Europe  have  been  contented  to  bow ;  and  in 
no  order  of  men  were  such  qualities  to  be  found  as  they  were  found  six 
hundred  years  ago  in  the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  called 
themselves  the  Successors  of  the  Apostles.  They  claimed,  in  their 
Master's  name,  universal  spiritual  authority,  but  they  made  good  their 
pretensions  by  the  holiness  of  their  own  lives.  They  were  allowed  to  rule 
because  they  deserved  to  rule,  and  in  the  fulness  of  reverence  kings  and 
nobles  bent  before  a  power  which  was  nearer  to  God  than  their  own. 
Over  prince  and  subject,  chieftain  and  serf,  a  body  of  unarmed  defence- 
less men  reigned  supreme  by  the  magic  of  sanctity.  They  tamed  the 
fiery  Northern  warriors,  who  had  broken  in  pieces  the  Roman  Empire. 
They  taught  them — they  brought  them  really  and  truly  to  believe  that 
they  had  immortal  souls,  and  that  they  would  one  day  stand  at  the  awful 
judgment-bar  and  give  account  for  their  lives  there.  With  the  brave,  the 
honest,  and  the  good,  with  those  who  had  not  oppressed  the  poor  nor 
removed  their  neighbour's  landmark,  with  those  who  had  been  just  in  all 
their  dealings,  with  those  who  had  fought  against  evil,  and  had  tried 
valiantly  to  do  their  Master's  will,  at  that  great  day  it  would  be  well. 
For  cowards,  for  profligates,  for  those  who  lived  for  luxury  and  pleasure 
and  self-indulgence,  there  was  the  blackness  of  eternal  death. 

"  An  awful  conviction  of  this  tremendous  kind  the  clergy  had  effectually 
instilled  into  the  mind  of  Europe.  It  was  not  a  PERHAPS  ;  it  was  a  cer- 
tainty. It  was  not  a  form  of  words  repeated  once  a  week  at  church  ;  it 
was  an  assurance  entertained  on  all  days  and  in  all  places,  without  any 
particle  of  doubt.  And  the  effect  of  such  a  belief  on  life  and  conscience 
was  simply  immeasurable. 

"  I  do  not  pretend  that  the  clergy  were  perfect.  They  were  very  far 
from  perfect  at  the  best  of  times,  and  the  European  nations  were  never 
completely  submissive  to  them.  .  .  .  They  could  not  prevent  kings  from 
quarrelling  with  each  other.  They  could  not  hinder  disputed  successions, 
and  civil  feuds,  and  wars,  and  political  conspiracies.  What  they  did  was 
to  shelter  the  weak  from  the  strong.  In  the  eyes  of  the  clergy  the  serf 
and  his  lord  stood  on  the  common  level  of  sinful  humanity.  Into  their 
ranks  high  birth  was  no  passport.  They  were  themselves,  for  the  most 
part,  children  of  the  people  ;  and  the  son  of  the  artisan  or  peasant  rose  to 
the  mitre  or  the  triple  crown,  just  as  nowadays  the  railsplitter  and  the 
tailor  become  Presidents  of  the  Republic  of  the  West.  The  Church  was 
essentially  democratic  while  at  the  same  time  it  had  the  monopoly  of 
learning ;  and  all  the  secular  power  fell  to  it  which  learning,  combined 
with  sanctity  and  assisted  by  superstition,  can  bestow.  .  .  . 


(    47     ) 

u  You  have  only  to  look  from  a  distance  at  any  old-fashioned  cathedral 
city,  and  you  will  see  in  a  moment  the  mediaeval  relations  between  Church 
and  State.  The  cathedral  is  the  city.  The  first  object  you  catch  sight 
of  as  you  approach  is  the  spire  tapering  into  the  sky,  or  the  huge  towers 
holding  possession  of  the  centre  of  the  landscape — majestically  beautiful 
— imposing  by  mere  size  amidst  the  large  forms  of  Nature  herself.  As 
you  go  nearer,  the  vastness  of  the  building  impresses  you  more  and  more. 
The  puny  dwelling-places  of  the  citizens  creep  at  its  feet,  the  pinnacles 
are  glittering  in  the  tints  of  the  sunset,  when  down  below  among  the 
streets  and  lanes  the  twilight  is  darkening.  And  even  now,  when  the 
towns  are  thrice  their  ancient  size,  and  the  houses  have  stretched  upwards 
from  two  stories  to  five ;  when  the  great  chimneys  are  vomiting  their 
smoke  among  the  clouds,  and  the  temples  of  modern  industry — the  work- 
shops and  the  factories — spread  their  long  fronts  before  the  eye,  the 
cathedral  is  still  the  governing  form  in  the  picture — the  one  object  which 
possesses  the  imagination  and  refuses  to  be  eclipsed.  As  that  cathedral 
was  to  the  old  town,  so  was  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  secular 
institutions  of  the  world.  Its  very  neighbourhood  was  sacred  ;  and  its 
shadow,  like  the  shadow  of  the  Apostles,  was  a  sanctuary  "  (Frotjde's 
Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  vol.  i.  2d  ed.,  1867,  pp.  33-37). 

Speaking  of  one  of  the  great  Religious  Orders  of  the  Church,  that  of 
St.  Benedict,  a  writer  in  the  Dublin  University  Magazine  says:  — 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  that  in  its  earliest 
stage — the  first  phase  of  its  existence — its  tendency  was  to  elevate  pea- 
sants to  the  dignity  of  Apostles  ;  but  in  its  second  stage  it  reversed  its 
operations,  and  brought  kings  from  their  thrones  to  the  seclusion  of  the 
cloister — humbled  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  to  the  dust  of  penitential 
humility.  Up  to  the  fourth  century,  Christianity  was  a  terrible  struggle 
against  principalities  and  powers  :  then  a  time  came  when  principalities 
and  powers  humbled  themselves  at  the  foot  of  that  Cross  whose  followers 
they  had  so  cruelly  persecuted.  The  innumerable  martyrdoms  of  the  first 
four  centuries  of  its  career  were  followed  by  a  long  succession  of  royal 
humiliations,1  for  during  the  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries, 
in  addition  to  what  took  place  as  regards  other  Orders,  no  less  than  ten 
e?npe?'ors  and  twenty  kings  resigned  their  crowns  and  beca7ne  monks  of  the 
Benedictine  Order  alone.  .  .  .  Adding  to  these  their  subsequent  acquisi- 
tions, the  Benedictines  claim,  up  to  the  fourteenth  century,  the  honour  of 
enrolling  amongst  their  number  twenty  emperors  and  forty-seven  kings, 
twenty  sons  of  emperors  and  forty-eight  sons  of  kings.  .  .  .  As  nzms  of 
their  Order  they  have  had  no  less  than  ten  empresses  and  fifty-seven  queens. 
I11  the  wake  of  these  crowned  heads  follow  more  than  one  hundred  pro- 
cesses, da7(ghters  of  kings  and  emperors.  .  .  .  The  Benedictines  produced 
.  .  .  seven  thousand  Archbishops,  fifteen  thousand  Bishops,  .  .  .  fifteen 
thousand  Abbots,  four  thousand  Saints.  They  established  in  different 
countries  altogether  thirty-seven  thousand  monasteries,  which  sent  out 
1  The  reader  will  remember  the  prophecy  in  Isai.  xlix.  23,  &c. 


(    43    ) 

into  the  world  upwards  of  fifteen  thousand  seven  hundred  monks,  all  of 
whom  attained  distinction  as  authors  of  books  or  scientific  inventors,"  &c. 
(Dub.  Univ.  Mag.,  Jan.  1866). 

"  Western  Monasticism,  in  its  general  character,"  says  Dean  MlLMAN, 
"was  not  the  barren,  idly  laborious,  or  dreamy  quietude  of  the  East.  It 
was  industrious  and  productive  ;  it  settled  colonies,  preserved  arts  and 
letters,  built  splendid  edifices,1  fertilised  deserts.  If  it  rent  from  the  world 
the  most  powerful  minds,  having  trained  them  by  its  stern  discipline,  it 
sent  them  back  to  rule  the  world.  It  continually,  as  it  were,  renewed  its 
youth,  and  kept  up  a  constant  infusion  of  vigorous  life,  now  quickening 
into  enthusiasm,  now  darkening  into  fanaticism  ;  and,  by  its  perpetual 
rivalry,  stimulating  the  zeal  or  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  the  secular 
clergy.  In  successive  ages  it  adapted  itself  to  the  state  of  the  human 
mind.  At  first  a  missionary  to  barbarous  nations,  it  built  abbeys,  hewed 
down  forests,  cultivated  swamps,  enclosed  domains,  retrieved  or  won  for 
civilisation  tracts  which  had  fallen  to  waste  or  had  never  known  culture. 
With  St.  Dominic  it  turned  its  missionary  zeal  upon  Christianity  itself, 
and  spread  as  a  preaching  Order  throughout  Christendom  ;  with  St. 
Francis  it  became  even  more  popular,  and  lowered  itself  to  the  very 
humblest  of  mankind"  (Hist,  of  Lat.  Christ.,  vol.  i.,  Introduce,  pp.  7,  8).2 

D'Israeli  (the  elder)  writes:— 

1  "  Latin  Christianity,"  says  the  same  writer,  "  during  a  period  of  from  ten  to 
twelve  centuries,  had  covered  the  whole  of  Western  Europe  with  its  still  multiply- 
ing churches  and  religious  buildings.  From  the  southern  shores  of  Sicily  to  the 
Hebrides  and  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  from  the  doubtful  borders  of  Christian 
Spain  to  Hungary,  Poland,  Prussia,  not  a  city  was  without  its  cathedral,  sur- 
rounded by  its  succursal  churches,  its  monasteries,  and  convents,  eacli  with  its 
separate  church  or  chapel.  There  was  not  a  town  but  above  the  lowly  houses, 
almost  entirely  of  wood,  rose  the  churches,  of  stone  or  some  other  solid  material, 
in  their  superior  dignity,  strength,  dimensions,  and  height ;  not  a  village  was 
without  its  sacred  edifice ;  no  wayside  without  its  humbler  chapel  or  oratory. 
Not  a  river  but  in  its  course  reflected  the  towers  and  pinnacles  of  many  abbeys  ; 
not  a  forest  but  above  its  lofty  oaks  or  pines  appeared  the  long-ridged  roof  or  the 
countless  turrets  of  the  conventual  church  and  buildings.  Even  now,  after  periods 
in  some  countries  of  rude  religious  fanaticism,  .  .  .  after  the  total  suppression  or 
great  reduction  of  monastic  institutions,  the  secularisation  of  their  wealth,  and  the 
abandonment  of  their  buildings  to  decay  and  ruin  ;  our  awe  and  wonder  are  still 
commanded,  and  seem  as  if  they  would  be  commanded  for  centuries,  by  the  un- 
shaken solidity,  spaciousness,  height,  majesty,  and  noble  harmony  of  the  cathedrals 
and  churches  throughout  Western  Europe.  We  are  amazed  at  the  imagination 
displayed  in  every  design,  at  the  enormous  human  power  displayed  in  their  crea- 
tion ;  at  the  wealth  which  commanded,  the  consummate  science  which  guided  that 
power ;  at  the  profound  religious  zeal  which  devoted  that  power,  wealth,  and 
science  to  these  high  purposes.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  to  follow  out  to  their  utmost 
extent,  or  to  appreciate  too  highly  the  ennobling,  liberalising,  humanising,  Chris- 
tianising effects  of  Church  architecture  during  the  Middle  Ages"  (book  xiv. 
ch.  viii.  pp.  268,  289,  vol.  ix. ). 

2  The  reader  should  consult  MONTALEMBERT's  splendid  work  The  Monks  of 
the  West,  Eng.  trans.,  7  vols.  Svo.     Comp.  the  Protestant  Neanm.r's  Hi 

the  Church,  vol.  vii.,  Bonn's  ed.,  pp.  322  J<y.,  352  seq.,  372  seq.t  387,  388,  398, 
399.  406,  407. 


(    49    ) 

"  It  is  certainly  to  the  solitary  monks  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of 
the  precious  remains  of  ancient  literature.  We  must  consider  their  silent 
mansions  as  having  afforded  the  only  retreats  to  science  and  literature  in 
ages  when  a  universal  ignorance  threatened  to  banish  from  Europe  every 
species  of  learning.  The  labour  of  transcribing  books,  which  then  formed 
one  of  the  chief  occupations  of  the  monks,  always  continued  with  them, 
till  the  discovery  of  the  admirable  art  of  printing.  It  is  thus  that  all 
impartial  historians  dispense  only  bare  justice  to  the  ancient  monks,  by 
acknowledging  that  it  is  to  their  cares  and  to  their  labours  that  we  owe 
the  valuable  remains  of '  a?itiquity ',  as  well  sacred  as  profane"  {Curiosities 
of  Literature ',  1st  series,  vol.  ii.  p.  345  seq.). 

Dr.  Farrar,  Canon  of  Westminster,  and  Chaplain-in-Ordinary  to  the 
Queen,  says : — 

"  What  was  it  that  had  preserved  the  best  elements  of  Christianity  in 
the  fourth  century?  The  self-sacrifice  of  the  Hermits.  What  was  it 
which  saved  the  principles  of  law,  and  order,  and  civilisation  ?  What 
rescued  the  wreck  of  ancient  literature  from  the  universal  conflagration  ? 
What  restrained,  what  converted  the  inrushing  Teutonic  races  ?  What 
kept  alive  the  dying  embers  of  science  ?  What  fanned  into  a  flame  the 
white  ashes  of  art  ?  What  reclaimed  waste  lands,  cleared  forests,  drained 
fens,  protected  miserable  populations,  encouraged  free  labour,  equalised 
widely  separated  ranks  ?  What  was  the  sole  witness  for  the  cause  of 
charity,  the  sole  preservative  of  even  partial  education,  the  sole  rampart 
against  intolerable  oppression  ?  What  force  was  left  which  could  alone 
humble  the  haughty  by  the  courage  which  is  inspired  by  superiority  to 
those  things  which  most  men  desire,  and  elevate  the  poor  by  the  spectacle 
of  a  poverty  at  once  voluntary  and  powerful  ?  What  weak  and  unarmed 
power  alone  retained  the  strength  and  the  determination  to  dash  down 
the  mailed  hand  of  the  baron  when  it  was  uplifted  against  his  serf,  to 
proclaim  a  truce  of  God  between  warring  violences,  and  to  make  insolen 
wickedness  tremble  by  asserting  the  inherent  supremacy  of  goodness  over 
transgression,  of  knowledge  over  ignorance,  of  quiet  righteousness  over 
brute  force  ?  Yoit  will  say  the  Church  ;  you  will  say  Christianity.  Yes, 
but  for  many  a  long  century  the  very  bulwarks  and  ramparts  of  the 
Church  were  the  monasteries,  and  the  one  invincible  force  of  the  Church 
lay  i?i  the  self  sacrifice,  the  holiness,  the  courage  of  the  Monks  "  {Saintly 
Workers,  pp.  82,  83,  ed.  1878). 

"  From  the  fifth  to  the  thirteenth  century,"  says  the  same  writer,  "  the 
Church  was  engaged  in  elaborating  the  most  splendid  organisation  which 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Starting  with  the  separation  of  the  spiritual 
from  the  temporal  power,  and  the  mutual  independence  of  each  in  its  own 
sphere,  Catholicism  worked  hand  in  hand  with  feudalism  for  the  amelio- 
ration of  mankind.  Under  the  influence  of  feudalism  slavery  became 
serfdom,  and  aggressive  was  modified  into   defensive  war.1     Under  the 

1  M.  Guizot  says  : — "There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Church  struggled  reso- 
lutely against  the  great  vices  of  the  social  state, — against  slavery,  for  instance  ; 

D 


(     50    ) 

influence  of  Catholicism  the  monasteries  preserved  learning  and  main- 
tained the  sense  of  the  unity  of  Christendom.  Under  the  combined  influ- 
ence of  both  grew  up  the  lovely  ideal  of  chivalry,  moulding  generous 
instincts  into  gallant  institutions,  making  the  body  vigorous  and  the  soul 
pure,  and  wedding  the  Christian  virtues  of  humility  and  tenderness  to  the 
natural  graces  of  courtesy  and  strength.  During  this  period  the  Church 
was  the  one  mighty  witness  for  light  in  an  age  of  darkness,  for  order  in 
an  age  of  lawlessness,  for  personal  holiness  in  an  epoch  of  licentious  rage. 
Amid  the  despotism  of  kings  and  the  turbulence  of  aristocracies,  it  was 
an  inestimable  blessing  that  there  should  be  a  power  which,  by  the  un- 
armed majesty  of  simple  goodness,  made  the  haughtiest  and  the  boldest 
respect  the  interests  of  justice,  and  tremble  at  the  thought  of  temperance, 
righteousness,  and  the  judgment  to  come  "  (Farrar's  Hulsea?i  Lectures 
for  1870,  p.  115,  Lect.  iii.,  The  Victories  of  Christianity). 

"  Once  more,  consider  what  the  Church  did  for  Education.  Her  ten 
thousand  monasteries  kept  alive  and  transmitted  that  torch  of  learning 
which  otherwise  would  have  been  extinguished  long  before.  A  religious 
education,  incomparably  superior  to  the  mere  athleticism  of  the  noble's 
hall,  was  extended  to  the  meanest  serf  who  wished  for  it.  This  fact  alone, 
by  proclaiming  the  dignity  of  the  Individual,  elevated  the  entire  hopes  and 
destinies  of  the  race.  The  humanising  machinery  of  Schools  and  Uni- 
versities, the  civilising  propaganda  of  missionary  zeal,  were  they  not  due 
to  her  ?  And,  more  than  this,  her  very  existence  was  a  living  education  ; 
it  showed  that  the  successive  ages  were  not  sporadic  and  accidental 
scenes,  but  were  continuous  and  coherent  acts  in  the  one  great  drama. 
In  Christendom  the  yearnings  of  the  past  were  fulfilled,  the  direction  of 
the  future  determined.  In  dim  but  magnificent  procession,  'the  giant 
forms  of  empires  on  their  way  to  ruin'  had  each  ceded  to  her  their 
sceptres,  bequeathed  to  her  their  gifts.  .  .  .  Life  became  one  broad  rejoic- 
ing river,  whose  tributaries,  once  severed,  were  now  united,  and  whose 
majestic  stream,  without  one  break  in  its  continuity,  flowed  on,  under  the 
common  sunlight,  from  its  Source  beneath  the  Throne  of  God  "  (lb.  p. 
1 86,  Lect.  v.,  Christianity  and  the  Race). 

Mr.  Lecky  observes  that : — 

"The  Catholic  Church  was  the  very  heart  of  Christendom,  and  the 
spirit  that  radiated  from  her  penetrated  into  all  the  relations  of  life,  and 
coloured  the  institutions  it  did  not  create.  ...  A  certain  unity  of  type 
was  then  manifested,  which  has  never  been  restored.  . .  .  This  ascendancy 
was  gained  by  mediaeval  Catholicity  more  completely  than  by  any  other 

.  .  .  Lastly,  she  strove  by  all  sorts  of  means  to  restrain  violence  and  continued 
warfare  in  society.  Every  one  knows  what  was  the  Truce  of  God,  and  numerous 
measures  of  a  similar  kind,  by  which  the  Church  struggled  against  the  employ- 
ment of  force,  and  strove  to  introduce  more  order  and  gentleness  into  society. 
These  facts  are  so  well  known  that  it  is  needless  for  me|to  enter  into  details  "  (Hist, 
of  Civilisat.y  Lect.  vi.).  Comp.  Balmez,  European  Civilisat.,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  66 
et  seq. 


K     Si     ) 

system  before  or  since,  and  the  stage  of  civilisation  that  resulted  from  it 
was  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  evolutions  of  society.  By  con- 
solidating the  heterogeneous  and  anarchical  elements  that  succeeded  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  by  infusing  into  Christendom  the  concep- 
tion of  a  bond  of  unity  that  is  superior  to  the  divisions  of  nationhood,  and 
of  a  moral  tie  that  is  superior  to  force,  by  softening  slavery  into  serfdom 
and  preparing  the  way  for  the  ultimate  emancipation  of  labour,  Catholicism 
laid  the  very  foundations  of  modern  civilisation.  Herself  the  most 
admirable  of  all  organisations,  there  were  formed  beneath  her  influence  a 
vast  network  of  organisations,  political,  municipal,  and  social,  which 
supplied  a  large  proportion  of  the  materials  of  almost  every  modern 
structure.  ...  In  the  transition  from  slavery  to  serfdom,  and  in  the 
transition  from  serfdom  to  liberty,  she  was  the  most  zealous,  the  most 
unwearied,  and  the  most  efficient  agent "  {Hist,  of  Rationalism,  vol.  ii. 
PP-  36,  37,  209). 

Dr.  Maitland  declares  that  :— 

"At  the  darkest  periods  the  Christian  Church  was  the  source  and 
spring  of  civilisation,  the  dispenser  of  what  little  comfort  and  security 
there  was  in  the  things  of  this  world,  and  the  quiet  scriptural  asserter  of 
the  rights  of  man  "  {Essays  on  the  Dark  Ages,  p.  393). 

Regarding  the  charges  of  ignorance  and  corruption  of  morals,  alleged 
against  the  mediaeval  clergy  and  monks,  he  says  : — 

"  There  were  in  the  dark  ages  (as  well  as  at  other  times)  two  sets  of 
persons,  from  whose  writings  it  is  easy  to  cull  passages  describing  'the 
clergy '  as  less  learned  and  religious  than  they  were  bound  to  be  ;  and 
each  set  tempted  to  detail,  and  perhaps  to  exaggerate,  the  vices  of 
ecclesiastics.  First,  there  were  those  who  hated  the  religion  which  the 
clergy  maintained,  and  who  envied  the  property,  privileges,  and  influence 
which  they  enjoyed,1  and  which  (whatever  the  personal  character  of 
some  of  them  might  be)  they  generally  employed  to  check  the  licentious- 
ness of  others.  Among  these  there  have  perhaps  always  been  facetious 
persons  who  have  considered  religion  and  its  ministers  as  fit  subjects  for 
their  drollery,  and  who  have  delighted  to  represent  the  clergy  as  a  vile 
race  of  knaves  and  fools,  characterised  only  by  pride,  sensuality,  avarice, 
and  ambition,  except  where  all  these,  and  all  that  was  better,  was  kept 
under  by  idiot  superstition.  .  .  .  The  second  set  of  writers  to  whom  I  have 
alluded  are  those  who,  either  under  pretence,  or  with  the  real  object,  of 
producing  reformation,  have  been  vigilant  to  spy  out,  and  forward  to 
publish,  the  vices  of  Churchmen.2  .  .  .  From  both  these  sets  of  writers 

1  The  untenability  or  utter  falsity  of  most  of  the  charges  made  against  the 
Religious  Houses  of  this  country  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  has  been  recently 
more  fully  exposed  by  Dr.  Dixon,  Protestant  Canon  of  Carlisle,  in  vol.  i.  of  his 
Hist,  of  the  Church  of  England  from  the  Abolition  of  the  Roman  Jurisdiction. 
In  this  work  many  of  Mr.  Froude's  statements  are  refuted. 

2  The  Spanish  historian  Balmez,  after  admitting  "  that  lamentable  abuses  had 
crept  in  during  the  course  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  the  corruption  of  morals  had 


(      52      ) 

very  strong  statements  may  be  extracted,  and  the  testimony  which  they 
apparently  give  will  seem,  to  the  young  student  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
to  be  confirmed  by  the  proceedings  of  Councils  and  the  tenor.of  their 
canons,  as  well  as  by  a  good  deal  of  what  he  will  find  in  the  works  of 
secular  historians,  even  supposing  that  he  does  go  to  the  original  sources. 
He  must,  however,  remember  that  sin,  in  some  shape  or  other,  is  the 
great  staple  of  history  and  the  sole  object  of  law ;  and  he  must  expect, 
from  both  the  historian  and  the  legislator,  to  hear  more  of  one  turbulent 
prelate,  or  one  set  of  factious  or  licentious  monks,  than  of  a  hundred 
societies  or  a  thousand  scattered  clergy  living  in  the  quiet  decency  suited 
to  their  profession  "  {lb.  p.  33). 

Mr.  Edmund  Ffoulkes,  writes  : — 

"  As  little  can  it  be  denied  that  the  glories  of  the  thirteenth  century 
were  due  to  the  vigorous  reforms  inaugurated  by  St.  Gregory  VI  I.  and  his 
successors,  as  that  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  witnessed  a  very 
extensive  declension  of  manners  and  discipline,  though  by  no  means  of 
civilisation.  Even  on  the  former  head,  were  I  writing  a  Church  history, 
there  would  be  some  extenuating  circumstances  to  be  produced  in  behalf 
of  a  period  during  which  upwards  of  fifty  Universities1  were  founded  in 

been  great,  and  that  consequent  reform  was  required ; "  and  after  showing  that 
these  abuses  were  to  be  attributed  to  "the  evils  of  the  time  alone,"  continues  :  — 
"  But  were  the  spirit  and  ardent  desire  of  reforming  abuses  ever  wanting  in  the 
Church  ?  It  can  be  shown  that  they  were  not.  I  will  not  mention  the  Saints 
whom  she  did  not  cease  to  produce  during  these  unhappy  periods  ;  history  proves 
their  number  and  their  virtues,  which,  so  vividly  contrasting  with  the  corruption 
of  the  age,  show  that  the  divine  flames  which  descended  on  the  Apostles  had  not 
been  extinguished  in  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church.  This  fact  proves  much  ; 
but  there  is  another  still  more  remarkable — a  fact  less  subject  to  dispute,  and 
which  we  cannot  be  accused  of  exaggerating — a  fact  which  is  not  limited  to 
individuals,  but  which  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  most  complete  expression  of  the 
spirit  by  which  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  was  animated  ;  I  mean,  the  constant 
meeting  of  Councils,  in  which  abuses  were  reproved  and  condemned,  and  in  which 
sanctity  of  morals  and  the  observance  of  discipline  were  continually  incu.\ 
Happily  this  consoling  fact  is  indisputable ;  it  is  open  to  every  eye ;  and  to  be 
aware  of  it  one  only  needs  consult  a  volume  of  ecclesiastical  history  on  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Councils.  .  .  .  Simony  and  incontinence  were  the  prevailing  vices  : 
if  you  open  the  canons  of  Councils,  you  will  find  them  everywhere  anathema- 
tised. ..."  (See  Balmez  on  European  Civilisation,  Protestantism  and  Catho- 
licity Compared,  3d  Eng.  edit.,  p.  8  sea.  and  p.  400). 

1  The  German  historian  Alzog  says  that  "sixty-six  Universities,  of  which 
sixteen  belonged  to  Germany,  existed  in  Europe  before  the  year  1517  "  {Universal 
Church  Hist.,  Eng.  trans.,  ed.  Gill,  Dublin,  1880,  vol.  iii.  p.  179).  The  principal 
of  these  were  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Bologna,  and  Salerno  (see  the  Prot. 
Church  historian  Mosheim,  Maclaine's  edit.,  vol.  iii.  p.  28  ct  sea.).  A  complete 
list  of  them,  with  the  dates  of  their  foundation,  is  given  by  Alzog  (vol.  ii.  p.  523 
note).     The  number  in  Italy  was  sixteen  ;  in  France,  thirteen;  in   Portugal and 


'    (     53    ) 

all  parts  of  Europe  ;  gorgeous  Cathedrals  of  the  stamp  of  Orvieto,  Sienna, 
Milan,  Strasburg,  Winchester  (as  restored  by  William  of  Wykeham), 
Toledo,  and  Seville  erected  ;  professorial  chairs  for  the  study  of  Hebrew 
and  Chaldee,  Greek  and  Arabic,  ordained  by  a  General  Council  for  Rome, 
Paris,  Oxford,  Bologna,  and  Salamanca.  No  less  than  twenty  printed 
editions  of  the  Bible  were  brought  out  in  High  or  Low  Germany  alone1 
between  a.d.  1460  and  the  age  of  Luther  ;  upwards  of  1200  books  issued 
from  the  printing  presses  of  Italy  alone  between  A.D.  1471-80.2  For 
commentators  on  the  Bible,  it  could  boast  of  Tostatus  and  Nicholas  of 
Lyra  ;  for  masters  of  the  inner  life,  John  Tauler  and  Thomas  a  Kempis  ; 
for  ideal  artists,  Fra  Angelico  and  Fra  Bartolomeo.  It  was  not  behind- 
hand in  men  and  women  of  the  saintly  graces  of  St.  Catherine  of  Sienna, 
St.  Bridget,  St.  Elizabeth  of  Portugal,  St.  Vincent  Ferrier,  and  St.  John 
Cantius  ;  of  the  ardent  philanthropy  of  Bartholomew  de  las^Casas  ;  of 
the  splendid  abilities  of  Cardinal  Ximenes,  or  the  splendid  munificence  of 
William  of  Wykeham  and  Wainflete  "  (Christendoms  Divisions,  vol.  i. 
p.  130). 

Regarding  the  Council  of  Trent,  Hallam  says  :— 

"  It  is  usual  for  Protestant  writers  to  inveigh  against  the  Tridentine 
Fathers.  I  do  not  assent  to  their  decisions,  which  is  not  to  the  pur- 
pose ;  .  .  .  but  I  must  presume  to  say,  that  reading  their  proceedings  in 
the  pages  of  that  very  able  and  not  very  lenient  historian  to  whom  we 
have  generally  recourse,  an  adversary  as  decided  as  any  that  could  have 
come  from  the  Reformed  Churches,3  I  find  proofs  of  much  ability,  con- 
sidering the  embarrassments  with  which  they  had  to  struggle,  and  of  an 
honest  desire  of  reformation  among  a  large  body  as  to  those  matters  which 
in  their  judgment  ought  to  be  reformed"  (Hist,  of  Liter  at.  of  Europe, 
part  i.  ch.  vi.  sect.  25  note  ;  vol.  i.  p.  376,  ed.  i860).  And  again  : — "  No 
General  Council  ever  contained  so  manype?'sons  of  eminent  learning  and 
ability  as  that  of  Trent ;  nor  is  there  ground  for  believing  that  any  other 
ever  investigated  the  questions  before  it  with  so  much  patience,  acuteness, 

Spain,  \ eleven  ;  in  England,  two;  in  Scotland,  three;  in  Burgundy,  one;  in 
Brabant,  one  ;  in  Germany,  sixteen  ;  in  Bohemia,  one  ;  in  Poland,  one ;  in  Den- 
mark, one  ;  in  Sweden,  one  ;  in  Hungary,  three  ;  in  Ireland,  one. 

1  See  Alzog,  vol.  iii.  p.  142  (he  is  speaking  of  Bibles  in  the  German  lan- 
guage). 

2  Hallam  says  :— "  The  books  printed  in  Italy  during  these  ten  years  amount, 
according  to  Panzer,  to  1297,  of  which  234  are  editions  of  ancient  classical  authors. 
Books  without  date  are  of  course  not  included  ;  and  the  list  must  not  be  reckoned 
complete  as  to  others  "  (Hist,  of  Literature  of Europe,  part  i.  ch.  iii.  n.  44). 

3  Of  Paul  Sarpi's  Hist,  of  the  Council  of  Trent  Hallam  elsewhere  says  : — 
"It  became  the  text-book  of  Protestantism  on  the  subject.  .  .  .  It  appears  to  me 
quite  out  of  doubt  .  .  .  that  he  was  entirely  hostile  to  the  Church,  in  the  usual 
sense,  as  well  as  to  the  Court  of  Rome,  sympathising  in  ajfection  and  concurring 
generally  in  opinion  with  the  Reformed  denomination  "  (Hist,  of  Liter  at.,  part  iii.  ch. 
ii.  sect.  3  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  398).  Sarpi's  errors  and  misrepresentations  were  exposed 
by  Cardinal  Pallavicino  in  his  authentic  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 


(     54     )• 

temper,  and  desire  of  truth"  (lb.  part  ii.  ch.  ii.  sect.  18  note;  vol.  ii.  p. 
71  note).  Regarding  the  labours  of  the  Popes  and  of  the  Catholic  Church 
at  this  period  for  the  reformation  of  morals,  &c,  see  also  Ranke's  Hist, 
of  the  Popes,  Bonn's  edit.,  vol.  i.  pp.  no,  214,  233,  249,  264,  265,  &c. 
Comp.  vol.  ii.  pp.  160,  179,  182  seq. 

"Ancient  Christianity" 
Dr.  ISAAC  Taylor,  a  well-known  Protestant  writer,  says : — 
"No  reader  of  Church  history  can  require  it  to  be  proved  that  the 
various  rites  and  usages  on  account  of  which  the  Romish  and  Greek 
Churches  are  usually  impugned  as  idolatrous  by  Protestants,  were  openly 
practised  and  were  authorised  by  the  heads  of  the  Church  in  the  age  of 
Gregory  I.  But  when  did  these  superstitions  first  make  their  appearance  ? 
It  is  superfluous  to  produce  evidence  of  their  existence  and  prevalence  in 
the  times  immediately  preceding  those  of  Pope  Gregory.  Gregory  of 
Tours,  Leo  I.,  Evagrius,  Sozomen,  Socrates,  Theodoret,  Isidore,  Cyril  of 
Alexandria,  and  many  others,  forbid  the  supposition  that  they,  or  any  of 
their  contemporaries,  had  been  the  authors  of  the  opinions  or  the  usages 
now  in  question.  The  men  of  that  period  did  indeed  give  their  supersti- 
tions a  more  distinct  expression,  and  in  various  instances  they  amplified 
particular  rites  ;  yet  only  as  a  man  clears,  and  plants,  and  beautifies  an 
inheritance  on  which  his  ancestors  had  toiled  in  like  manner "  (Ancient 
Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  173,  1842). 

In  p.  92  he  speaks  of—"  1.  Chrysostom's  personal  and  cordial  approval 
of  demonolatrous  [Saint  and  Martyr]  worship.  2.  The  universality 
of  these  superstitions,  or  the  fact  that  the  Christianised  people  of  the 
fourth  century  practised,  in  these  respects,  whatever  is  now  characteristic 
of  the  Greek  and  Romish  communions.  3.  These  practices  were  not  then 
of  rece7it  origin."  x 

After  filling  about  forty  pages  of  his  work  with  citations  from  Basil, 
Ephraem  Syrus,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chrysostom,  Asterius,  and  others, 
he  says  : — 

"  Not  a  fiftieth  fart  of  what  might  deserve  to  be  called  tlie  evidence 
bearing  upon  our  subject  has  been  produced.  Scarcely  a  writer,  if  'there 
be  one,  of  the  Nicene  Church — Eastern  or  Western — would  withhold  his 
contributions  to  the  mass;  and  alas  I  what  a  volume  would  Augustine 
alone  furnish  I  .  .  .  The  few  passages  that  have  been  cited  will,  I  think, 
be  enough  to  satisfy  every  honest  and  intelligent  reader  as  to  the  broad 
fact  assumed — viz.,  that  the  direct  invocation  of  Saints  and  Martyrs,  and 
an  idolatrous  veneration  of  their  symbols  and  relics,  were  carried  to  as 
culpable  an  extreme  in  the  Nicene  Church  as  they  have  at  any  lime  since 
been  carried  in  the  Romish  Church;  and  that  in  whatever  terms  we  may 
choose  to  express  our  disapprobation  of  those  superstitions  as  practised 

1  Dr.  Littledale  has  the  assurance  to  affirm  that  "we  find  the  first  germs 
of  the  practice  (of  the  Invocation  of  Saints)  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  ccutury  ;  " 
and  he  refers  to  St.  Chrysostom  as  being  opposed  to  the  same  !  {Plain  Reasons, 
&c.t  3d  edit.,  p.  34). 


.     (     55     ) 

by  the  latter,  they  cannot,  with  any  colour  of  reason,  be  retracted  when 
we  have  to  speak  of  the  same  as  attaching  to  the  former  "  {lb.  pp.  213,  214)- 
With  respect  to  St.  Ambrose,  he  says  : — U  A  Romanist  might  proceed  to 
argue : — Most  distinctly  does  he  recognise  and  authenticate  Prayers  for 
the  dead — Prayers  to  the  dead — the  merit  of  Penance — the  Supremacy  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome — and  that  opinion  of  the  miraculous  property  of  the 
Eucharistic  elements  which  Protestants  deny.  Is  it  equitable,  then,  in 
argument,  to  quote  this  Father  against  Romanists,  when  in  truth  his  testi- 
mony, taken  as  a  whole,  bears  most  decisively  against  Protestantism  ? 
Such  a  reply  can  by  no  means  be  rebutted"  (Supplement,  p.  19).  "  In 
almost  every  instance  in  which  Protestants  and  Romanists  are  at  issue, 
Ambrose  may  properly  be  appealed  to  by  the  latter,  and  not  the  former" 
{lb.  p.  37).  "  Augustine  allows  and  recommends  all  that  the  Church  of 
Rome  formally  sanctions  ;  or,  at  the  least,  he  authorises  that  which  all 
Protestants  utterly  condemn"  {lb.  p.  25). 

The  Bible  in  the  Church. 

The  Rev.  E.  Cutts,  D.D.,  in  a  work  published  by  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  says  : — 

"There  is  a  good  deal  of  popular  misapprehension  about  the  way  in 
which  the  Bible  was  regarded  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Some  people  think 
that  it  was  very  little  read,  even  by  the  clergy  ;  whereas  the  fact  is  that 
the  sermons  of  the  mediasval  preachers  are  more  full  of  Scripture  quota- 
tions and  allusions  than  any  sermons  in  these  days ;  and  the  writers  on 
other  subjects  are  so  full  of  Scriptural  allusion,  that  it  is  evident  their 
minds  were  saturated  with  Scriptural  diction.  .  .  .  Another  common  error 
is,  that  the  clergy  were  unwilling  that  the  laity  should  read  the  Bible  for 
themselves,  and  carefully  kept  it  in  an  unknown  tongue,  that  the  people 
might  not  be  able  to  read  it.  The  truth  is,  that  most  people  who  could 
read  at  all  could  read  Latin,  and  would  certainly  prefer  to  read  the 
authorised  Vulgate  to  any  vernacular  version.  But  it  is  also  true  that 
translations  into  the  vernacular  were  made.  .  .  .  We  have  the  authority 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  for  saying  that  'the  whole  Bible  was,  long  before 
Wycliffe's  days,  by  virtuous  and  well-learned  men,  translated  into  the 
English  tongue,  and  by  good  and  godly  people  with  devotion  and  sober- 
ness well  and  reverently  read.5  .  .  .  Again,  on  another  occasion,  he  says  : 
— '  The  clergy  keep  no  Bibles  from  the  laity  but  such  translations  as  be 
either  not  yet  approved  for  good,  or  such  as  be  already  reproved  for 
naught  (bad),  as  Wycliffe's  was.  For  as  for  old  ones  that  were  before 
Wycliffe's  days,  they  remain  lawful,  and  be  in  some  folk's  hands ' "  {Turn- 
ing-Points of  English  Church  History »,  1874,  pp.  200,  201). 

The  Quarterly  Review  (October  1879)  says  : — 

"  The  notion  that  people  in  the  Middle  Ages  did  not  read  their  Bibles 
is  probably  exploded,  except  among  the  more  ignorant  of  controversialists. 
But  a  glance  at  this  volume  (Dean  Goulburn's  Life  of  Bishop  Herbert  de 
Losinga)  is  enough  to  show  that  the  notion  is  not  simply  a  ?nistake — that 


(     56    ) 

it  is  o?ie  of  the  most  ludicrous  and  grotesque  of  blunders.  If  having  the 
Bible  at  tJieir fingers'  ends  could  have  saved  the  Middle  Age  teachers  from 
abuses  and  false  doctrine,  they  were  certaijily  well  equipped.  They  were 
not  merely  accomplished  textuaries.  They  had  their  minds  as  saturated 
with  the  language  and  associations  of  the  sacred  text  as  the  Puritans  of 
the  seventeenth  century."  (See  also  Maitland's  Dark  Ages,  pp.  220,  221, 
470.) 

Early  Pri?ited  Catholic  Versions  of  the  Bible. 

I.  Latin  Bibles.— The  Protestant  essayist  on  "  The  Dark  Ages," 
when  refuting  D'Aubigne's  absurd  statement  that  the  Bible  was  "  a  rare 
book,  unknown  in  those  days"  when  Luther  " discovered "  a  copy  of  a 
Latin  Bible  in  the  monastery  at  Erfurt,  says  : — "  To  say  nothing  of  parts 
of  the  Bible,  or  of  books  whose  place  is  uncertain,  we  know  of,  at  least, 
twenty  different  editions  of  the  whole  Latin  Bible,  pri7ited  in  Gerjnany 
only  before  Luther  was  born"  In  addition  to  these  : — " Before  Luther 
was  born  the  Bible  had  been  printed  in  Rome,  Naples,  Florence,  and 
Placenza,  and  Venice  alone  had  furnished  eleven  editions."  "  No  doubt," 
he  adds,  "  we  should  be  within  the  truth  if  we  were  to  say  that  beside  the 
multitude  of  manuscript  copies,  not  yet  fallen  into  disuse,  the  press  had 
issued  fifty  different  editions  of  the  whole  Latin  Bible,  to  say  nothing  of 
Psalters,  New  Testaments,  and  other  parts  "  (Maitland's  Essays  on  the 
Dark  Ages,  p.  469). 

This  estimate  is,  however,  very  far  within  the  truth.  REUSS,  a  leading 
Rationalist  of  Germany,  says  that  "  no  book  was  so  frequently  published 
immediately  after  the  first  invention  of  printing  as  the  Latin  Bible,  more 
than  one  hundred  editions  of  it  being  struck  off  before  the  year  1520" 
(Ed.  Reuss,  Die  Geschichte  der  heiligen  schriften,N.  T.,  Brunswick,  1853, 
p.  458).  Hain,  in  his  Repertoriuin  Bibliographicum,  printed  at  Tubingen, 
reckons  consecutively  ninety-eight  distinct  editions  before  the  year  1 500, 
independently  of  twelve  other  editions,  which,  together  with  the  Latin 
text,  presented  the  Glossa  Ordinaria,  or  the  Postillas  of  Lyranus.  From 
the  year  1475,  when  the  first  Venetian  edition  appeared,  to  the  close  of 
the  century,  that  city  yielded  no  fewer  than  twenty-two  complete  editions 
of  the  Latin  Bible,  besides  some  others  with  the  notes  of  Lyranus.  (See 
Irish  Ecclesiast.  Record,  vol.  i.  p.  255.) 

II.  German  Bibles.1 — The  first  German  printed  Bible,  bearing  the 
arms  of  Frederick  III.,  issued  from  the  Mentz  press  about  1462.  Another 
version  appeared  in  1466,  two  copies  of  which  are  still  preserved  in  the 

1  The  Church  Times  of  July  26,  1878,  speaking  of  the  List  of  Bibles  in  the 
Caxton  Exhibition  (South  Kensington,  1877),  published  by  H.  Stevens,  says  : — 
'*  This  catalogue  will  be  very  useful  for  one  thing,  at  any  rate,  as  disproving  the 
popular  lie  about  Luther's  f tiding  the  Bible  for  the  first  time  at  Erfurt  about 
1507.  Not  only  are  there  very  many  editions  of  the  Latin  Vulgate  long  ante- 
rior to  that  time,  but  there  were  actually  nine  German  editions  of  the  Bible  in  the 
Caxton  Exhibition  earlier  than  1483,  the  year  of  Luther's  birth,  and  at  least  three 
more  before  the  end  of  the  century." 


(     57    ) 

Senatorial  Library  at  Leipsic.     Other  versions  were  published  in  rapid 
succession.1 

III.  Italian  Bibles. — Three  editions  of  the  Bible  in  the  Italian 
tongue  appeared  in  the  year  14.71,  one  being  a  translation  by  Nicholas 
Malermi,  a  Camaldolese  monk,  and  the  two  others  by  writers  of  the 
fourteenth  centuty.  No  fewer  than  eleven  complete  editions  of  these 
several  versions  appeared  before  the  year  1500,  and  were  reprinted  eight 
times  more  before  the  year  1567,  with  the  express  permission  of  the  "  Holy 
OfficeT  More  than  forty  editions  are  reckoned  before  the  appearance  of 
tue  first  Protestant  version  in  Italian.  An  entirely  new  translation  was 
made  by  Sanctes  Marmoschini  in  1538,  and  was  reprinted  in  1546. 
Another  by  Bruccioli  of  Venice  in  1532,  from  which  date  to  1552,  twelve 
editions  of  this  version  appeared  ;  but  though  remarkable  for  its  Tuscan 
dialect,  it  was'inaccurate  in  many  passages,  and  for  this  reason  was  con- 
demned by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  The  first  Protestant  Italian 
Bible  was  printed  at  Geneva  in  1562,  and  was  little  more  than  a  reprint 
of  Bruccioli's  version. 

IV.  Spanish  Bibles. — In  Spain  the  whole  Bible,  which  had  been 
translated  into  the  vernacular  tongue  by  Boniface  Ferrier  in  1405,  was 
printed  in  1478,  and  reprinted  in  151 5,  with  the  formal  consent  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition.  In  15 12,  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  were  translated 
by  Ambrosio  Montesma,  and  this  work  was  republished  at  Antwerp  in 
1544;  at  Barcelona  in  1601  and  1608  ;  and  at  Madrid  in  1603  and  161 5. 
Carranza,  the  celebrated  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  says  in  the  Prologue 
to  his  Commentaries  : — "  Before  the  heresies  of  Luther  appeared,  I  do 
not  know  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  vulgar  tongue  were  anywhere 
forbidden.  In  Spain,  the  Bible  was  translated  into  it  by  order  of  the 
Catholic  sovereigns,  at  the  time  when  the  Moors  and  Jews  were  allowed 
to  live  among  the  Christians  according  to  their  own  law."  He  then  pro- 
ceeds to  show  why  the  indiscriminate  circulation  of  the  same  (from  which 
so  much  evil  naturally  resulted)  was  subsequently  prohibited  in  Spain. 
(See  Balmez  On  European  Civilisat.,  ch.  xxxvi.,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  192.) 

V.  French  Bibles. — A  French  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  by 
two  Augustinian  friars,  Julian  Macho  and  Pierre  Farget,  was  published  at 
Lyons  in  1478.  A  copy  of  this  version  is  preserved  in  the  public  library 
of  Leipsic.     The  version  of  De  Moulins  appeared  soon  afterwards  in  a 

1  They  appeared  as  follows  : — At  Mayence  in  1467  ;  Nuremburg,  1477,  1483, 
1490,  1518;  Augsburg,  1477,  1480,  1483,  1487,  1490,  1494,  1507,  1518,  1524; 
Strasburg,  1485.  Fust's  edition  was  printed  in  1472.  Seckendorf  speaks  of 
three  other  distinct  versions  of  the  German  Bible,  printed  at  Wittemberg  in  1470, 
1483,  and  1490  {Comment,  in  Lutheran.,  lib.  i.  sect.  51).  Versions  in  other 
<lialects  appeared  at  Lubeck  in  1494,  at  Halberstadt  in  1522,  at  Cologne 
between  1470  and  1480,  at  Delft  in  1477,  at  Gouda  in  1479,  at  Louvain  in 
1 5 18.  (See  Panzer's  List  of  all  the  Bibles  Printed  in  Old  German,  Nuremburg, 
1774,  and  the  New  History  of  Catholic  German  Bibles,  Nuremburg,  1784.) 


(     58     ) 

quarto  edition,  and  a  new  edition,  carefully  revised  by  Jean  de  Rely,  was 
published  in  Paris  under  the  auspices  of  Charles  VIII.  in  1487.  It  passed 
through  fourteen  other  editions  in  Paris  and  Lyons  alone,  before  the  year 
1546.  Menaud's  version  was  published  in  1484,  and  that  of  James  le 
Fevre  in  1512.  This  last,  corrected  by  the  Louvain  divines,  became  so 
popular  that  it  passed  through  more  than  forty  editions  before  the  year 
1700.  Another  French  Catholic  translation,  by  Nicholas  de  Leuse,  was 
printed  at  Antwerp  in  1534.  The  first  Protestant  version  was  printed  at 
Neufchatel  in  1535. 

VI.  Other  Versions. — Amongst  these  may  be  mentioned  particularly 
the  Flemish  translation  made  by  Jacobus  Merland,  cir.  A.D.  12 10,  which 
was  printed  at  Cologne  in  1475,  and  passed  through  seven  editions  before 
the  year  1530,  and  of  which  the  Antwerp  edition  was  republished  eight 
times  in  the  space  of  seventeen  years ;  the  Flemish  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  by  Cornelius  Kendrick,  1524,  of  which  ten  editions  were 
published  at  Antwerp  alone  within  thirty  years  ;  a  Bohemian  version 
published  at  Prague  in  1488,  at  Cutra  in  1498,  and  at  Venice  in  1506 
and  151 1  ;  a  Sclavonian  at  Cracow;  and  an  ETHIOPIC  Bible  at  Rome 
in  1548,  &c. 

Complete  lists  of  the  various  Catholic  translations  of  the  Bible  will  be 
found  in  Le  Long's  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  2  vols,  fol.,  Paris,  1723  ;  and  in 
the  Bibliotheque  Curieuse  of  the  Calvinist  writer,  David  Clement,  9 
vols.  4to,  Gottingen,  1750.  See  also  the  first  seven  vols,  of  Panzer's 
Annates  Typographici  (Nuremburg,  1791-1803),  the  Dublin  Review, 
vol.  i.,  and  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Record,  vol.  i. 

Of  the  celebrated  "  Complutensian  Polyglot"  of  Cardinal  Ximenes 
(published  in  6  vols,  fol.,  15 15),  and  of  the  early  Catholic  editions  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  speak. 


The  English  and  Foreign  "  Reformation  " — Its  early  Effects  on  Chris- 
tian Faith  and  Morals,  as  described  by  the  Reformers  the;/:, 
and  by  later  Protestant  Historians. 

I.  Its  Effects  on  Christian  Belief. 
Calvin,  writing  to  Melanchthon,  says  : — "  It  is  of  great  importance 
that  the  divisions  which  subsist  amongst  us  should  not  be  known  to 
future  ages  ;  for  nothing  can  be  more  ridiculous  than  that  we,  who  have 
been  obliged  to  separate  from  the  whole  world  (a  toto  mundo  disces- 
sionem  facere  coacti  sumus),  should  have  agreed  so  ill  among  ourselves 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Reformation"  {Epist.  141). 

BEZA  writes  to  Dudith  : — u  I  have  also  been  long  and  greatly  tormented 
by  the  same  thoughts  which  you  describe  to  me.  I  see  our  people  wander 
at  the  mercy  of  every  wind  of  doctrine,  and  after  having  been  raised  up, 
fall,  sometimes  on  one  side  and  sometimes  on  the  other.     What  they 


(     59    ) 

think  of  religion  to-day  you  may  know  ;  what  they  will  think  of  it  to- 
morrow you  cannot  affirm.  On  what  poi?it  of  religion  are  the  Churches 
which  have  declared  war  against  the  Pope  agreed  amongst  thejnselves  ? 
Examine  all,  from  beginning  to  the  e7id;  yoii  will  hardly  find  one  thing" 
affirmed  by  the  one  which  the  other  does  not  directly  cry  otit  against  as 
impiety  "  (In  quo  tandem  religionis  capite  congruunt  inter  se  ecclesias, 
quae  Romano  Pontifici  bellum  indixerunt  ?  A  capite  ad  calcem  si  per- 
curras  omnia,  nihil  propemodum  reperias  ab  uno  affirmari,  quod  alter 
statim  non  impium  esse  clamitet. — Epist  ad  And.  Dudit.,  ap.  Balmez, 
European  Civilisat.,  p.  402). 

Melanchthon  declared  that  "  the  Elbe  with  all  its  waters  could  not 
furnish  tears  enough  to  weep  over  the  miseries  of  the  distracted  Refor- 
mats "  (Efiis.  202,  lib.  ii.).  See  also  Bossuet's  Hist,  of  the  Varia- 
tions of  the  Protestant  Churches,  bk.  v.  ch.  iv.,  and  bk.  ii.  ch.  xliii. 

Hallam  says  : — "We  ought  to  reckon  among  the  principal  causes  of 
this  change  [the  decline  of  Protestantism  and  the  Catholic  reaction  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century]  those peipetual  disputes,  those  irre- 
concilable animosities,  that  bigotry  above  all,  and  pe7'secuting  spirit, 
which  were  exhibited  in  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  Churches"  (Hist. 
of  Literature  of  Europe,  part  ii.  ch.  ii.  sect.  20;  vol.  ii.  ed.  i860,  p. 
73).  "  Thus,  in  the  second  period  of  the  Reformation,  those  ominous 
symptoms  which  had  appeared  in  its  earlier  stage,  disunion,  virulence, 
bigotry,  intolerance,  far  from  yielding  to  any  benignant  i?iflue?ice,  grew 
more  i7iveterate  and  incurable  "  (lb.  sect.  29,  p.  80). 

Speaking  of  the  learned  Protestant  GROTIUS,  he  says  : — "  The  ill-usage 
he  sustained  at  the  hands  of  those  who  boasted  their  independence  of  Papal 
tyranny,  the  caresses  of  the  Gallican  clergy  after  he  had  fixed  his  residence 
in  Paris,  the  growing  dissensions  and  virulence  of  the  Protestants,  the 
choice  that  seemed  alone  to  be  left  in  their  communion  between  fanatical 
anarchy,  disintegrating  everything  like  a  Church,  on  the  one.  hand,  and 
a  do?ni?tation  of  vulgar  and  bigoted  ecclesiastics  on  tjie  other,  made  him 
gradually  less  and  less  averse  to  the  comprehensive  and  majestic 
UNITY  OF  THE  Catholic  hierarchy,  and  more  and  more  disposed  to 
concede  some  point  of  uncertain  doctrine  or  some  form  of  ambiguous 
expression"  (lb.  part  iii.  ch.  ii.  sect.  13  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  409). 

For  a  full  account  of  the  Anglican  Schism,  and  of  the  variations  in 
doctrine  of  the  "  Church  as  by  Law  Established,"  the  reader  may  be 
referred  to  the  Rev.  W.  Waterworth's  Orgin  and  Development  of  Angli- 
canism (Burns  &  Oates) ;  and  he  may  also  advantageously  consult  the 
History  of  the  Church  of  England,  from  the  Abolition  of  the  Ronian 
Jurisdiction,  by  Dr.  Dixon,  Protestant  Canon  of  Carlisle. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Dr.  WALTON,  the  editor 
of  the  celebrated  Polyglot  Bible,  in  six  volumes  folio,  and  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Chester,  writes  : — "Aristarchus   formerly  could  hardly  find 


(    6o    ) 

seven  wise  men  in  Greece  ;  but  amongst  us  [English]  are  hardly  to  be 
found  so  many  ignorant  persons;  for  all  are  teachers,  all  divinely  instructed. 
There  is  no  fanatic  or  clown,  from  the  lowest  dregs  of  the  people,  wHW 
does  not  give  you  his  own  dreams  for  the  word  of  God.  For  the  bottomless 
pit  seems  to  have  been  set  open,  from  whence  a  smoke  has  risen  which 
has  obscured  the  heavens  and  the  stars,  and  locusts  are  come  out  with 
stings,  a  numerous  race  of  sectaries  and  heretics,  who  have  renewed  all 
the  old  heresies,  and  invented  monstrous  opinions  of  their  own.  These 
have  filled  our  cities,  villages,  camps,  houses  ;  nay,  our  churches  and 
pulpits  too,  and  lead  the  poor  deluded  people  with  them  to  the  pit  of 
perdition"  (Pre/,  ad  Proleg.  in  Bibl.  Polyglot  ta,  ed.  Cambridge,  1828). 

II.  Its  Effects  on  Morals. 

Protestant  writers  can  gain  nothing  by  exaggerating,  as  they  commonly 
do,  the  evils  and  corruption  of  morals  that  existed  before  the  time  of 
the  so-called  Reformation,  seeing  that  according  to  the  unanimous  testi- 
mony of  the  Reformers  themselves,  and  of  all  truthful  historians,  matters 
became  much  worse  wherever  their  new  gospel  was  spread,  and  amongst 
the  majority  of  those  who  embraced  it. 

LUTHER  himself  declared  : — "  The  world  grows  worse  from  day  to 
day.  Men  are  now  much  more  covetous,  malicious,  and  resentful,  much 
more  unruly,  shameless,  and  full  of  vice,  than  they  were  i?i  the  time  of 
Popery  "  (Mundus  in  dies  fit  deterior.  Sunt  nunc  homines  magis  vindictae 
cupidi,  magis  avari,  magis  ab  omni  misericordia  remoti,  magis  immodesti 
et  indisciplinati,  multoque  deteriores  quam  fuerint  in  Papatu. — In  Postill. 
super  Evang.  Dominicce  primes  Advent.). 

"  Formerly,  when  we  were  seduced  by  the  Pope,  men  willingly  followed 
good  works  ;  but  now  all  their  study  is  to  get  everything  to  themselves,  by 
exactions,  pillage,  theft,  lying,  and  usury"  (Serin.  Dom.  impost  Trinity. 

"  With  regard  to  our  Germany,  it  is  evident,  according  to  the  great 
light  of  the  Gospel,  that  it  is  clean  possessed  by  the  devil.  Our  youths 
are  impudent  and  unruly,  and  will  no  longer  submit  to  education  ;  the 
old  men  are  loaded  with  sins  of  avarice,  usury,  and  many  others  that 
may  not  be  told"  (Luth.  in  Gen.  xxiii.  9,  torn.  i.  p.  2451). 

Calvin  says  : — "  When  so  many  thousand  men,  having  thrown  off  the 
Papal  authority,  eagerly  enrolled  themselves  under  the  Gospel,  how  few, 
think  you,  have  repented  of  their  vices  ?  Nay,  what  has  the  majority 
shown  to  have  been  their  desire,  than  that,  having  shaken  off  the  yoke  of 
superstition,  they  might  launch  out  the  more  freely  into  every  kind  of 
lasciviousness  ? "  (Ut  excusso  superstitionum  jugo,  solutius  in  omnem 
lasciviam  diffluerent. — De  Scandalis,  torn.  ix.  p.  71,  ed.  Amstelod,  1667). 

WlLlBALD  PlRCKHElMER,1  A.D.  1528  :— "O  splendid  Christianity!  I 

1  Hallam  says : — "  Munzer  and  Knipperdoling,  with  the  whole  brood  of 
Anabaptist  fanatics,  were  the  legitimate  brood  of  Luther's  early  doctrine.     And 


(     6i     ) 

know,  and  it  is  the  truth,  that  even  unbelievers  were  not  guilty  of  such 
fraud  and  crime  as  these  who  call  themselves  '  Evangelicals.'  For  the 
"met  is  evident  to  be  seen,  that  there  is  now  neither  faith  nor  hope,  no  fear 
of  God,  no  love  of  one's  neighbour  ;  but  there  is  a  rejection  of  mercy  and 
goodness,  of  art  and  of  learning ;  nor  do  they  now  think  of  aught  save 
the  gratification  of  the  body,"  &c.  (Eftist.  to  Tscherte,  in  Reliquien  von 
Albrecht  Durer,  Nuremberg,  1828,  p.  168). 

Bucer,  a  prominent  "  Reformer,"  also  says  : — "  The  greater  part  of 
the  people  seem  only  to  have  embraced  the  gospel  in  order  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  of  discipline  and  the  obligation  of  fasting,  penance,  &c,  which 
lay  upon  them  in  Popery,  and  to  live  at  their  pleasure,  enjoying  their  lusts 
and  lawless  appetites  without  control.  He7ice  they  lend  a  willing  ear  to 
the  doctrine  that  we  are  saved  by  faith  alone,  and  not  by  works,  having 
no  relish  for  them  "  (De  Regno  Christi,  lib.  i.  c.  4). 

ERASMUS  wrote,  after  sufficient  experience  of  the  "  Reformation  :  " — 
"  Look  around  on  this  '  Evangelical '  people,  and  observe  whether  there 
be  less  luxury,  debauchery,  and  avarice  amongst  them  than  among  those 
you  so  hate.  Show  me  any  one  whom  that  new  gospel  has  changed 
from  a  drunkard  to  a  sober  man,  from  a  cruel  to  a  gentle,  from  a  greedy 
to  a  liberal,  from  a  malignant  to  an  amiable,  from  an  impure  to  a 
chaste  one.  I  will  show  you  many  who  have  become  worse  through 
follow ing  W  (Circumspice  populum  ilium  evangelicum  ;  .  .  .  et  profer 
mihi  quern  istud  evangelium  ex  commessatore  sobrium,  ex  feroci  man- 
suetum,  ex  rapaci  liberalem,  ex  maledico  benedicum,  ex  impudico  redid- 
derit  verecundum.  Ego  tibi  multos  ostendam  qui  facti  sunt  seipsis 
deteriores. — Eftist.  ad  Vulturitim  Neoco?nu?n). 

"  Those  whom  I  had  once  known  to  be  chaste,  sincere,  and  without 
fraud,  I  found,  after  they  had  embraced  this  sect,  to  be  licentious  in  their 
conversation,  gamblers,  neglectful  of  prayer,  passionate,  vain,  as  spiteful 
as  serpents,  and  lost  to  the  feelings  of  human  nature.  I  speak  from 
experience "  (Quos  antea  noveram  puros,  candidos,  et  fuci  ignaros, 
eosdem  vidi,  ubi  sectae  se  dedissent,  loqui  caepissime  de  puellis,  luisse 
alcam,  abjecisse  preces,  impatientissimos  omnis  injuria?,  vanos,  viperinos 

even  if  we  set  these  aside,  it  is  certain  that  we  find  no  testimonies  to  any  reform  of 
manners  in  the  countries  that  embraced  it.  .  .  .  This  great  practical  deficiency  in 
the  Lutheran  reformation  is  confessed  by  their  own  writers.  And  it  is  attested 
by  a  remarkable  letter  of  Wilibald  Pirckheimer,  announcing  the  death  of  Albert 
Durer  to  a  correspondent  at  Vienna  in  1528.  ...  In  this  he  takes  occasion  to 
inveigh  against  the  bad  conduct  of  the  Reformed  party  at  Nuremberg,  and  seems 
as  indignant  at  the  Lutherans  as  he  had  ever  been  against  Popery,  though  without 
losing  his  hatred  for  the  latter.  .  .  .  The  witness  he  bears  to  the  dishonest  and 
dissolute  manners  which  had  accompanied  the  introduction  of  Lutheranism  is  not 
to  be  slightly  regarded,  considering  rthe  respectability  of  Pirckheimer,  and  his 
known  co-operation  with  the  first  reform  "  {Hist,  of  Literat.  of  Europe,,  part  i.  ch. 
iv.  sect.  60  note,  6th  ed.). 


(       62       ) 

in  moribus,  ac  prorsus  hominem  exuisse.     Expertus  loquor. — Epist.  ad 
Fratres  Infer.  Germanics,  Colon.,  1561). 

"  The  letters  of  Erasmus,"  says  HALLAM,  "  are  a  perpetual  commen- 
tary on  the  mischiefs  with  which  the  Reformation,  in  his  opinion,  was 
accompanied "  {Hist,  of  Literat.  of  Europe,  pt.  i.  -ch.  vi.  sect.  8,  note ; 
vol.  i.  p.  361). 

Mr.  Baring  Gould  (an  Anglican)  says  : — "  Even  in  Luther's  time 
the  proclamation  of  free  justification  by  faith  only  led  to  grave  disorders, 
and  frightened  back  into  Catholicism  many  who  wished  the  Reforma- 
tion success.  One  instance  alone  will  serve  to  show  the  results  of  the 
doctrine  of  Solifidianism.  In  Ditmarchen,  Neocorus  tells  us,  chastity 
and  innocence  were  so  remarkable,  that  the  little  principality  went  by  the 
name  of  the  Land  of  Mary.  In  1532  it  was  Lutheranised.  Nine  years 
after,  in  1541,  the  Reformer  Nicholas  Boje  complained  that  ■  fornica- 
tion, adultery,  and  usury  were  practised  in  a  way  unusual  even  among 
Jews  and  heathens,  and  had  so  gained  the  upper-hand  that  it  was 
impossible  to  supply  any  remedy  by  sermons.'  .  .  . 

"  There  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  wherever  the  Reformation 
in  Germany  prevailed,  the  moral  tone  sank  several  degrees"  (Baring 
Gould's  Germany,  Past  and  Present,  vol.  ii.  pp.  175-178,  Lond. 
1879). 

As  regards  our  own  country,  King  Henry  VIII.  declared,  in  his  last 
speech  to  Parliament  :  — "  The  Bible  itself  is  turned  into  wretched 
rhymes,  sung  and  jangled  in  every  alehouse  and  tavern.  I  am  sure  that 
charity  was  never  so  faint  among  ye,  virtue  never  at  a  lower  ebb,  and 
God  Himself  never  less  honoured  or  worse  served  in  Christendom  " 
(Stow's  Annals,  and  Collier's  Ecclesiast.  Hist,  part  ii.  book  iii. 
p.  218). 

Bishop  Latimer,  in  his  seventh  sermon  before  Edward  VI.,  said  : — 
"  I  never  saw,  surely,  so  little  discipline  as  is  nowadays.  Men  will  be 
masters  :  they  will  be  masters  and  no  disciples.  Alas  !  where  is  this 
discipline  now  in  England?  The  people  regard  710  discipline;  they  be 
without  all  order.  Where  they  should  give  place,  they  will  not  stir  one  inch: 
...  if  a  man  say  anything  unto  them,  they  regard  it  not.  Men,  the  more 
they  know,  the  worse  they  be  :  it  is  truly  said  *  Scientia  inflat,'  knowledge 
maketh  us  proud,  and  causeth  us  to  forget  all,  and  set  away  discipline. 
Surely  in  Popery  they  had  a  reverence;  but  now  we  have  ?wne  at  all.  I 
never  saw  the  like  !  .  .  .  What  blasphemy  do  we  daily  commit ;  what 
little  regard  have  we  to  Christ's  blessed  Passion!"  (Serm.  xiii.,  Parker 
Society  edit.,  Cambridge,  1844,  p.  230).1 

1  In  his  "  Sermon  of  the  Plough,"  preached  in  1548,  Latimer  says  : — There  is 
in  London  as  much  pride,  covetousness,  cruelty,  oppression,  and  superstition  as 
ever  there  was  in  Nebo.  .  .  .  London  was  never  so  ill  as  it  is  nozv.     In  times  past 


(    63     ) 

Bernard  Gilpin  declares  that  in  Edward's  (VI.)  reign,  "  More  blind 
superstition,  ignorance,  and  infidelity  were  promulgated  in  England  than 
ever  were  under  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  The  realm  was  in  danger  of  be- 
coming more  barbarous  than  Scythia "  (Sermons  on  the  Crymes  of  the 
Realm,  ap.  Burke,  Historical  Portraits  of  the  Tudor  Dynasty,  vol.  ii.  p. 
296). 

Bradford  says  : — "All  men  may  see  that  immorality  in  its  foulest 
forms,  pride,  dishonesty,  unmercifulness,  scoffing  at  religion  and  virtue, 
and  a  desire  to  oppress  and  crush  down  the  poor,  far  surpassed  at  this 
time  anything  that  ever  before  occurred  in  the  realm"  (On  the  Condition 
of  Public  Morals  and  the  People's  Povertie).  And  in  a  letter  to  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  the  same  author  says  : — u  A  heavy  curse  seems  to  have 
fallen  on  the  people  ;  I  know  not  what  to  think  of  it.  Desolation  over- 
shadows this  land  of  ours,  that  was  once  so  prosperous  and  contented" 
(ap.  Burke,  p.  297). 

Strype  says  : — "About  this  time  the  nation  grew  infamous  for  the 
criine  of  adultery.  It  began  among  the  nobility  and  better  classes,  and  so 
spread  at  length  among  the  inferior  sort  of  people.  Noblemen  would 
frequently  put  away  their  wives  and  marry  others,  if  they  liked  another 
woman  better,  or  were  like  to  obtain  wealth  by  her.  And  they  would 
sometimes  pretend  their  former  wives  to  be  false  to  them,  and  so  be 
divorced,  and  marry  again  those  whom  they  might  fancy.  .  .  .  These 
adulteries  and  divorces  increased  very  much  ;  yea,  and  marrying  again 
without  any  divorce  at  all,  it  became  a  great  scandal  to  the  realm  and 
to  the  religion  professed  in  it.  This  state  of  morals  gave  much  sorrow 
and  trouble  to  good  men  to  see  it,  insomuch  that  they  thought  neces- 
sary to  move  for  an  Act  of  Parliament  to  punish  adultery  with  death. 
This  Latimer,  in  a  sermon  preached  in  the  year  1550,  signified  to  the 
king  :  '  For  the  love  of  God,  take  an  order  for  marriage  here  in  England '  " 
(Strype's  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  vol.  i.  pp.  293,  294). 

Camden  states  that  "  sacrilegious  avarice  ravenously  invaded  Church 
livings,  colleges,  chantries,  hospitals,  and  places  dedicated  to  the  poor, 
as  things  superfluous.-  Ambition  and  e?milation  among  the  nobility ,  pre- 
sumption and  disobedience  among  the  common  people,  grew  so  extravagant 
that  England  seemed  to  be  in  a  dow7iright frenzy  "  (  Chronicle  on  Edward's 
Reign,  ap.  Burke,  op.  cit.  p.  305). 

men  were  full  of  pity  and  compassion  ;  but  now  there  is  no  pity.  In  London  their 
brother  may  lie  in  the  streets  for  cold,  and  perish  with  hunger  between  stock  and 
stock.  I  know  not  what  to  call  it.  In  time  past,  when  a  rich  man  died,  they 
were  wont  to  help  the  poor  scholars  at  the  universities  with  exhibition  :  they 
would  bequeath  great  sums  of  money  to  the  relief  of  the  poor.  In  those  days 
they  maintained  Papists,  and  gave  them  livings.  But  now,  when  God's  Word  is 
brought  to  light,  none  helpeth  the  scholar  nor  the  poor  "...  (ap.  Dixon, 
Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Eng.  from  the  Abolition  of  the  Roffian  furisdiction,  vol.  ii. 
1 881,  p.  489). 


(     64     ) 

Bishop  Barlow  wrote  in  1553  : — "Mark  it  substantially  in  cities  and 
towns  where  ye  see  the  people  the  most  rifest  and  most  busy  to  prate  of 
the  gospel,  whether  they  be  or  be  not  as  great  usurers,  deceivers  of  their 
neighbours,  blasphemous  swearers,  evil  speakers,  and  given  to  all  vices 
as  deeply  as  ever  they  were.  This  I  am  sure  of,  and  dare  boldly  affinn, 
that  sith  the  time  of  this  new  co)ite7itious  learning  the  dread  of  God  is 
greatly  quenched,  a?id charitable  compassio7i  sore  abated"  {A  Dialogue  o?i 
the  Lutheran  Factions,  1553). 

Parkhurst  writes  to  Bullinger  in  1562: — "Religion  is  in  the  same 
state  among  us  as  heretofore.  .  .  .  Almost  all  are  covetous,  all  love  gifts. 
There  is  no  truth,  no  liberality,  no  knowledge  of  God.  Men  have  broken 
forth  to  curse  and  to  lie,  and  murder  and  steal,  and  commit  adultery," 
&c.  {Zurich  Letters,  Parker  Soc.  edit.,  Let.  xlvi.). 

For  copious  proofs  of  the  generally  infamous  character  of  the  Protes- 
tant clergy  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  see  Mr.  Buckle's  article  in 
Frazer's  Magazine  for  August  1867.  This  writer  remarks  that  "  during 
the  whole  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  situation  of  the  clergy  went  on 
degenerating y  "  and  that  "the  proofs  which  are  extant  of  the  gross  ignor- 
ance of  the  clergy  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  are  such  as  would  stagger  the 
most  incredulous,  even  if  they  were  not  confirmed  by  every  description  of 
historical  testimony  that  has  come  down  to  us."  x 

Present  Religious  Condition  of  Germany  and  England. 

Much  evidence  on  this  subject  has  been  accumulated  by  Mr.  Marshall 
in  his  Developments  of  Protestantism  (Richardson,  1849),  and  in  the  Inst 
chapter  of  his  work  on  Christian  Missions  (2d  edit.,  Longmans  &  Co.). 

Germany. — Mr.  Dewar,  English  chaplain  at  Hamburg,  writes  in  1844  : 
— "  Religious  indifference  has  pervaded  the  mass  of  the  people.  It  is  a  fact 
which  every  traveller  who  has  visited  the  shores  of  Germany  has  remarked, 
that  there  is  no  regard  for  the  ordinances  of  religion.  In  Hamburg  and 
its  suburbs  there  are  five  parish  churches  and  two  smaller  churches. 
The  congregation  attending  all  the  services  of  all  these  never,  I  am  told, 
amount  to  3000  in  number,  so  that  the  remainder  of  the  enormous  popu- 
lation, amounting  to  150,000,  pays  no  manner  of  worship  to  their  God. 

1  For  the  history  of  the  "  Reformation  "  in  this  country  (which  Lord  Macaulay 
characterises  as  "a  mere  political  job,  commenced  by  Henry,  the  murderer  of 
his  wives ;  continued  by  Somerset,  the  murderer  of  his  brother  ;  and  completed 
by  Elizabeth,  the  murderer  of  her  guest  " — Essay  on  Hallairis  Constitutional  Hist. ), 
the  reader  may  be  referred  to  the  admirable  Six  Historical  Lectures  by  the  late 
Dr.  J.  Waterworth,  to  vol.  i.  of  the  Clifton  Tracts,  and  to  Dr.  F.  G.  Lees' 
Church  under  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  early  vols,  also  of  The  History  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church  from  the  Abolition  of  the  Roman  jurisdiction,  by  Canon  Dixon* 
(Protestant),  and  Mr.  Burke's  Historical  Portraits  of  the  Tudor  Dynasty  (3  vols. 
8vo),  promise  to  exhibit  the  results  of  the  latest  and  most  exhaustive  researches 
into  the  history  of  that  event. 


(    65     ) 

.  .  .  And  Hamburg  in  these  matters  does  not  furnish  alow  standard  when 
compared  with  the  rest  of  Germany.  In  Berlin,  for  instance,  there  is  a 
parish  which  contains  54,000  inhabitants,  and  the  annual  number  of  com- 
municants is  1000  less  than  in  the  largest  parish  of  Hamburg,  while  the 
population  is  one-third  larger"  {German  Protestantism,  Oxford,  1844). 

Mr.  Samuel  Laing,  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  says  : — "  If  the  question 
is  reduced  to  what  really  are  its  terms  in  Germany1  at  present — Catholi- 
cism, with  all  its  superstitions,  errors,  and  idolatry,  or  to  no  religion  at 
all,  that  is  to  say,  not  avowed  infidelity,  but  the  most  torpid  apathy,  indif- 
ference, and  neglect  of  all  religion — it  may  be  doubted  if  the  latter  condi- 
tion of  a  people  is  preferable.  The  Lutheran  a?id  Calvinistic  Churches 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland  are  in  reality  extinct.  The  sense  of  reli- 
gion, its  influence  on  the  habits,  observances,  and  life  of  the  people,  is 
alive  only  in  the  Roman  Catholic  fiofiulatio7i "  (Notes  on  the  German 
Catholic  Church,  Lond.,  1845,  P*  I45)-  Compare  the  same  author's  Notes 
of  a  Traveller,  1st  series,  chaps,  ix.  and  xvii. 

Dr.  Schwabe  writes  in  1870: — "The  ancient  ties  of  the  Protestant 
Church  are  broken.  Spirit  and  strength  are  lacking  to  replace  them  by 
new  ones.  At  no  period  has  the  Church  commanded  less  and  given  less 
satisfaction  to  man.  Statistics  show  how  far  this  alienation  has  pro- 
ceeded. Of  630,000  Protestants,  11,900,  viz.,  nearly  2  per  cent.,  attend 
church  on  the  Sundays  ;  and  amongst  them  2225  go  to  the  Dom,  merely 
for  a  musical  treat.  Religious  indifference  appears  no  less  conspicuously 
in  the  fact  that  out  of  23,969  interments,  3777,  or  nearly  15  per  cent., 
only,  are  attended  by  religious  services  "  (Betrachtungen  iiber  die  Volk- 
seele,  Berlin,  1870). 

The  Churches  provide  accommodation  for  only  25,000  out  of  800,000 

1  It  should  be  observed  that  infidelity  in  foreign  countries — whether  Protestant 
or  Catholic — is  entirely  the  offspring  of  the  English  Deism  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  M.  Villemain  declares  that  the  French  philosophy  of  the 
last  century  owed  its  origin  to  the  English  writers  Herbert,  Hobbes,  Shaftes- 
bury, Toland,  Collins,  Woolston,  Bolingbroke,  Hume,  &c,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  Rationalism  and  Pantheism  of  Germany.  This  is  acknowledged  by 
Protestant  writers.  Thus,  the  Quarterly  Review  (Jan.  1861,  p.  288)  speaks  of 
"our  old  English  Deists,  who  were  the  true  fathers  of  French  Atheism  and  German 
unbelief 

Dr.  Harold  Browne  says  : — "  In  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
Deism  which  had  been  troubling  England  had  passed  through  the  alembic  of 
French  scepticism,  and  now  settled  down  in  a  shower  of  Rationalism  on  Germany. 
The  Rationalism  ofPaulus,  the  Pantheism  of  Hegel,  the  historical  myth  of  Strauss, 
derive  their  pedigree  from  the  writings  of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  Toland, 
Tindal,  and  other  English  Deists,  '.  .  .  through  the  school  of  Rousseau  and 
Voltaire.  ...  It  was  this  special  principle  [of  the  English  Deists]  which  passed 
through  the  various  forms  of  French  infidelity,  German  Rationalism  and  Pantheism, 
and  which  has  been  brought  back  to  us  as  the  highest  result  of  modern  dis- 
coveries in  science  and  mental  philosophy  "  {Aids  to  Faith,  pp.  295,  296). 

E 


(     66     ) 

souls  in  Berlin,  yet  they  are  all  but  empty  on  Sundays  (Religous  Thought 
i7i  Germany,  reprinted  from  Times,  1870,  p.  27). 

Mr.  Baring  Gould  writes  in  1879  : — "  Throughout  Germany  14  out  of 
100  persons  attend  church  on  Sunday  ;  in  the  town  of  Darmstadt  only 
3.3  in  a  hundred  ;  in  the  towns  of  Mainz  (among  the  Protestants),  5.1  ; 
Giessen,  5.7  ;  Worms,  6.3.  In  Darmstadt,  out  of  100  marriages,  34.5  per 
cent.,  in  Offenbach  48.6,  in  Worms  44,  are  celebrated  before  the  registrar 
alone,  without  religious  service  ;  burial  without  religious  service  through- 
out Germany  in  29.6  out  of  100  inhabitants  ;  in  Darmstadt,  60  per  cent." 
(Germany,  Past  and  Present,  vol.  ii.  p.  164).  See  also  the  work  entitled 
Home  Life  in  Germany. 

England. — W.  J.  Conybeare,  speaking  of  "the  infidelity  now  so 
general  among  the  best-instructed  portion  of  the  labouring  classes," 
says  : — "  It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  the  men  who  make  our  steam- 
engines  and  railway  carriages,  our  presses  and  telegraphs,  the  furniture 
of  our  houses  and  the  clothing  of  our  persons,  have  now  i?i  a  fearful  pro- 
portion retiounced  all  faith  in  Christianity.  They  regard  the  Scripture  as 
a  forgery  and  religion  as  priestcraft,  and  are  living  without  God  in  the 
world.  The  revelations  of  the  late  census  have  shown  that  in  England 
alone  there  are  more  than  five  millions  of  persons  who  adsent  themselves 
entirely  from  religious  worship"  (Conybeare's  Essays,  Ecclesiastical 
and  Social,  p.  99). 

Canon  MONEY,  of  Deptford,  said  at  the  Plymouth  Church  Congress  in 
1876: — "  However  the  sections  of  the  working  class  might  differ  in  in- 
telligence, in  sobriety,  in  honesty,  they  nearly  all  agreed  in  this — they 
were  alienated  from  Christianity.  Barely  five  per  ce?it.  atteiided  public 
worship" 

The  Rev.  T.  HUGO  added,  that  "the  masses  of  Lancashire  and  oj 
London  were  as  heathen  as  those  of  whom  St.  Paul  drew  a  picture  in 
immortal  though  dreadful  colours.  ...  He  knew  the  mobs  of  London 
and  Lancashire  well,  and  he  gave  them  his  word  of  honour  as  a  Christian 
priest,  that  there  was  no  difference  between  them  and  the  people  whom  St. 
Paul poi'trayed.  Then,  as  a  matter  of  course,  they  had  to  look  at  these 
masses  as  simply  heathen"  (Church  Times,  Oct.  13,  1876). 

The  Bishop  of  Rochester,  in  a  sermon  preached  in  the  Chapel 
Royal,  St  James's,  laments  "that  dense,  and  coarse,  and  almost  brutal 
ignorance,  in  which  the  toiling  masses  of  the  people  who  have  outgrown 
the  Church's  grasp  are  permitted  to  live  and  die,  of  all  that  touches  their 
salvation  and  explains  their  destiny.  To  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our 
fellow-countrymen,  Almighty  God  is  practically  an  unknown  Being,  except 
as  the  substance  of  a  hideous  oath  :  Jesus  Christ,  in  His  redeeming  love 
and  human  s\mpathv,as  distant  as  a  fixed  star"  (Good  Words,  Jan.  1880, 
p.  61). 


(    67    ) 


Whitaker's  Almanack  gives  the  following  List  of  Protestant 
Sects  now  existing  in  the  United  Kingdom. 


Advent  Christians. 
Advents,  The. 
Apostolics. 

Arminian  New  Society. 
Baptists. 

Baptized  Believers. 
Believers  in  Christ. 

Believers  in   the  Divine  Visitation   of 
Joanna     Southcote,     Prophetess     of 
Exeter. 
Believers  Meeting  in  the  Name  of  the 

Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Bible  Christians. 
Bible  Defence  Association. 
Brethren. 

Calvinists  and  Welsh  Calvinists. 
Calvinistic  Baptists. 

Catholic  Apostolic  Church  [Irvingites]. 
Chapels  of  other  Wesleyans  than  those 

enumerated. 
Christians  Owning  no   Name   but  the 

Lord  Jesus. 
Christians  who  object  to  be  otherwise 

designated. 
Christian  Believers. 

Christian  Brethren. 

Christian  Disciples. 

Christian  Eliasites. 

Christian  Israelites. 

Christian  Mission. 

Christian  Teetotallers. 

Christian  Temperance  Men. 

Christian  Unionists. 

Christadelphians. 

Church  of  England.1 

Church  of  Scotland. 

Church  of  Christ. 

Church  of  the  People. 

Church  of  Progress. 

Congregational       Temperance       Free 
Church. 

Countess  of  Huntingdon's  Connection. 


Covenanters. 

Coventry  Mission  Band. 

Danish  Lutherans. 

Disciples  in  Christ. 

Disciples  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Eastern  Orthodox  Greek  Church. 

Eclectics. 

Episcopalian  Dissenters. 

Evangelical  Free  Church. 

Evangelical  Mission. 

Evangelical  Unionists. 

Followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Free  Catholic  Christian  Church. 

Free  Christians. 

Free  Christian  Association. 

Free  Church  (of  Scotland). 

Free  Church  (Episcopal). 

Free  Church  of  England. 

Free  Evangelical  Christians. 

Free  Grace  Gospel  Christians. 

Free  Gospel  and  Christian  Brethren. 

Free  Gospel  Church. 

Free  Gospellers. 

Free  Methodists. 

Free  Union  Church. 

General  Baptist. 

General  Baptist  New  Connection. 

German  Evangelical  Community. 

German  Lutherans. 

German  Roman  Catholics. 

Glassites. 

Glory  Band. 

Greek  Catholic. 

Halifax  Psychological  Society. 

Hallelujah  Band. 

Hope  Mission. 

Humanitarians. 

Independents. 

Independent  Methodists. 

Independent  Religious  Reformers. 

Independent  Unionists. 

Inghamites. 


1  Lord  Macaulay  well  observed  that  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  England 
itself  "is  in  fact  a  bundle  of  religious  systems  without  number,  .  .  .  a  hundred 
sects  battling  ivithin  one  Church"  {Essay  on  Church  and  State). 


(    68    ) 


Israelites. 

Latter-Day  Saints. 

Lutherans. 

Methodist  Reform  Union. 

Missionaries. 

Modern  Methodists. 

Moravians. 

Mormons. 

Newcastle  Sailors'  Society. 

New  Church. 

New  Connection  General  Baptists. 

New  Connection  Wesleyans. 

New  Jerusalem  Church. 

New  Methodist. 

Old  Baptists. 

Open  Baptists. 

Order  of  St.  Austin,  The 

Orthodox  Eastern  Church. 

Particular  Baptists. 

Peculiar  People. 

Plymouth  Brethren. 

Polish  Society. 

Portsmouth  Mission. 

Presbyterian  Church  in  England. 

Presbyterian  Church  of  England. 

Presbyterian  Baptists. 

Primitive  Congregation. 

Primitive  Free  Church. 

Primitive  Methodists. 

Progressionists. 

Protestant  Members  of  the  Church  of 

England. 
Protestants  adhering  to  Articles  I    to 

1 8,  but  rejecting  Ritual. 
Protestant  Trinitarians. 
Protestant  Union. 
Providence. 
Quakers. 
Ranters. 

Rational  Christians. 
Reformers. 

Reformed  Church  of  England. 
Reformed  Episcopal  Church. 
Reformed  Presbyterians  or  Covenanters. 
Recreative  Religionists. 


Refuge  Methodists. 

Reform  Free  Church  Wesleyan  Me- 
thodists. 

Reformed  Presbyterians. 

Revivalists. 

Revival  Band. 

Salem  Society. 

Sandemanians. 

Scottish  Episcopal  Church. 

Scotch  Baptists. 

Second  Advent  Brethren. 

Secularists. 

Separatists  (Protestants). 

Seven-Day  Baptists. 

Society  of  the  New  Church. 

Spiritual  Church. 

Spiritualists. 

Strict  Baptists. 

Swedenborgians. 

Temperance  Methodists. 

Testimony  Congregational  Church. 

Trinitarians. 

Union  Baptists. 

Union  Churchmen. 

Union  Congregationalists. 

Union  Free  Church. 

Unionists. 

Unitarians. 

Unitarian  Baptists. 

Unitarian  Christians. 

United  Christian  Church. 

United  Free  Methodist  Church. 

United  Brethren  or  Moravians. 

United  Presbyterians. 

Universal  Christians. 

Unsectarian. 

Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists. 

Welsh  Free  Presbyterians. 

Welsh  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

Wesleyans. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Association. 

Wesleyan  Reformers. 

Wesleyan  Reform  Glory  Band. 

Working  Man's  Evangelistic  Mission 
Chapels. 


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